Chapter 6: The Man Who Wanted a Favor
I stared at the message for a moment before I turned the screen toward my father.
Richard read it.
His expression didn't change.
"Give me your phone," he said.
I handed it over without hesitating.
Richard held it in both hands and typed back slowly, one thumb, deliberate.
*This is Richard Caldwell.
Maya's father.
You have sixty seconds to reconsider whatever you were about to ask my daughter.*
He handed the phone back to me.
We both watched the screen.
Three dots appeared.
Then disappeared.
Then appeared again.
Then nothing.
Nicole had been watching from the table.
I couldn't see her face clearly, but her posture had changed — the careful straightness she'd been holding all morning had started to give way, her shoulders slightly forward, her hands folded too tightly in her lap.
Richard pulled out a chair across from her and sat down.
"He's not coming," he said.
"In case you were hoping."
Nicole looked at the table.
"I wasn't hoping for anything."
"Then what were you hoping for when you sent that message this morning?" I sat down too, across the corner from my father.
"What was the actual plan?
You'd be gone before Dad got home from work.
He'd think I was pregnant and throw me out.
And then what?
You'd call two weeks later from wherever you and Daniel had landed and say it had all been a misunderstanding?"
Nicole said nothing.
"Ethan," I said.
"What about Ethan?"
She looked up at me.
"He's six," I said.
"Were you taking him with you, or was he part of what you were leaving behind?"
Her throat moved.
"I told you.
I was coming back for him."
"After the money cleared."
She didn't answer.
"So yes," I said.
"After the money cleared."
Richard put a hand flat on the table.
"I'm not going to sit here and have this conversation in circles.
Nicole, I need you to write down every account you have access to — savings, investments, any private accounts Daniel opened for you.
All of it.
I need it before my attorney calls."
"I'm not writing anything down without my own attorney present."
"Then call your attorney."
She hesitated.
"I don't have one yet."
"Then get one." Richard's voice stayed level.
"Because what you have in front of you right now is a husband who is being remarkably controlled about the fact that you tried to frame his daughter this morning.
That controlled version of me has a time limit, Nicole.
I'd use the next hour wisely."
My phone buzzed again.
Different number this time.
A local area code I didn't recognize.
I answered it because my father nodded at me to.
"Is this Maya Caldwell?" A woman's voice.
Careful and professional.
"Yes."
"My name is Sandra Oakes.
I'm a paralegal with Hensley Family Law.
Your father contacted us this morning.
I'm calling to let you know that Mr.
Caldwell's attorney, James Hensley, will be available by video conference in approximately forty minutes.
We'll need you and your father present.
Can you confirm you're both at the family home?"
"Yes," I said.
"We're both here."
"Good.
One more thing, Ms.
Caldwell." A brief pause.
"Our office received a call approximately twenty minutes ago from a Daniel Carter.
He identified himself as a family friend and asked whether we had been retained by your father.
We did not confirm or deny.
I'm letting you know because Mr.
Hensley felt you should be aware."
I looked at my father.
"He called your attorney's office," I said.
Richard's eyes moved to Nicole.
She was looking at the table again.
"Thank you," I told Sandra.
"We'll be here."
After I ended the call, the kitchen was very quiet.
Daniel had found out who Richard's attorney was within twenty minutes of Richard making the call.
That meant Nicole had told him.
It meant her fingers moving across the phone screen a few minutes ago had not been calling her sister.
Richard reached across the table and picked up Nicole's phone.
He turned it over and held it out to her.
"Unlock it," he said.
She looked at him.
"If I'm wrong," he said, "unlock it and show me."
She didn't move for a long time.
Then she pressed her thumb to the screen and set it back on the table between them.
Richard picked it up and read for less than ten seconds before he set it back down.
"He has a lawyer too," he said.
"She told him the moment I made my call." He looked up at Nicole slowly.
"Were you really going to let Maya take the fall for all of this?
Nineteen years old.
Your own daughter."
Nicole's chin trembled once.
Then steadied.
"She would have been fine," she said.
"You would have calmed down.
You would have believed her eventually."
"Eventually," Richard repeated.
May you like
She said nothing.
"Eventually," he said again, very softly, like he was tasting the word and finding it poison.
