Chapter 10
Harold put the phone on speaker and set it on the table between them.
"—all I'm saying is let's handle this as a family," Victor was saying.
"Come to the office tomorrow.
Leave her there.
We can sit down and I can explain every single document, every transfer, every—"
"Victor," Harold said.
"Yes."
"Anna is in the room.
She can hear you."
The line went dead.
Harold picked up the phone.
Looked at the screen.
Looked at his daughter.
"He'll make a move tonight," Anna said.
She was already moving, reaching for the pharmacy bag, checking the contents with the quick efficiency of someone who had been half-ready to run for a long time.
"Derek, or someone else.
He won't wait."
"He won't touch you," Harold said.
"Dad.
He's been doing this for twenty years.
He's very good at it."
Lily set down her book.
"Are we leaving again, Mom?"
The steadiness in the child's voice, the way she asked it without fear — just practical readiness — made Harold's jaw tighten.
"No," he said.
He looked at Lily directly, the way a man looks at someone who deserves the truth.
"You're not leaving.
We are going to call someone, and we're going to stay right here until they arrive."
He took out his phone again.
The man he called had been his attorney for thirty-one years.
It rang twice.
"Harold.
It's late."
"I know.
I need you to come to the Maple Court Motel.
Bring everything you have on Walton Holdings subsidiary accounts — specifically anything from the eastern division that's moved through escrow in the last fourteen months." He paused.
"And Martin?
Come prepared to make calls in the morning.
Several of them."
A long exhale on the other end.
"How bad is it?"
Harold looked at the envelope on the table.
At his daughter.
At the small girl now standing beside her mother with a crayon drawing held loosely in one hand.
"I'll tell you when you get here."
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## CHAPTER 6: What Thomas Left Behind
Martin Gale arrived at the Maple Court Motel at twenty past ten.
