Chapter 6: The Offer

"No," Mara said. "Absolutely not."

"I haven't said anything yet," Nina said.

"You were about to say yes. I can see it on your face."

Theo Marsh waited beside the black car with his hands folded in front of him. He did not look bothered. He looked like a man who had been told to wait ten minutes and would wait an hour if he had to.

"Ms. Chen," he said. "You are welcome to join. Mr. Vance expected you would."

Mara glared at him. Then she glared at Nina. "Fine. But I'm in the room. And my phone is recording."

"Of course," Theo said.

Meridian Group's Aldermere office took up the top four floors of a glass tower. The elevator was silent. The lobby smelled like cold stone. Nina kept her hands in her coat pockets so nobody would see how badly they were shaking.

Lucian Vance stood at the window of a long, bare office with his back to the door. No pictures on the walls. No family photos on the desk. Just a view of the city, and a single folder placed in the middle of a black table.

"Ms. Walker," he said, without turning. "Thank you for coming."

"You said it was about my divorce."

"It is."

He turned around. In daylight he looked younger than he had on the steps in Harbor City, but his eyes were the same. Level and unreadable. He nodded at Mara.

"Ms. Chen. I read your motion this morning. It was good work."

"I didn't ask for your opinion," Mara said.

"I know." He pulled out a chair for Nina. "Please sit."

She sat. Mara stayed standing for another few seconds, then sat too.

"I'll be direct," Lucian said. "You are going to lose."

Nina frowned. "I won yesterday."

"You won a delay. Gideon Gibson has run his company for thirty years. He has judges who owe him favors, lawyers who owe him their careers, and reporters who return his calls. He will not lose to a woman with one lawyer and a dog."

Mara's jaw tightened. "She has recordings."

"Which his lawyers will call edited. She has certificates, which they will call company property. She has a vet report, which they will call exaggerated." He said it calmly, one point after another. "In fourteen days, you will walk into that courtroom with the truth. They will walk in with money. The truth is not always enough."

"You came to tell me I'm going to lose?" Nina said.

"I came to offer you a way not to."

He slid the folder across the table.

Nina opened it. The first page was a letterhead she knew. Meridian Group. The second was a list of names. Lawyers, investigators, a forensic audio expert, a former judge.

"These people work for me," Lucian said. "If you agree, they work for you. Mara stays lead counsel. Nobody takes that from her. They support her, with more resources than the Gibsons have in the entire city."

Mara's eyes moved down the page. She said nothing, but her mouth had gone thin.

"Housing," Lucian went on. "A secure apartment, with a place for the dog. Security, if you want it. Theo handles the press. The photo of you at the airfield will not be the last thing the public sees."

"And in exchange?" Nina asked.

"One year."

"One year of what?"

"As my wife."

The room went quiet.

Mara laughed once, short and sharp. "You have got to be kidding."

"I am not."

"She's married."

"Not for long, if she wins. The offer starts the day the divorce is final. Not a day before." He looked at Nina. "I am not asking you to break the law, or to cheat on anyone. I am asking for a year, after you are free."

Nina stared at him. Her heart was pounding, but her voice came out flat.

"Why?"

"My grandfather left a trust. The board of Meridian Group cannot confirm me as permanent chairman unless I am married within the year. It is an old clause, from an old man. I have eighty days left."

"So you need a wife."

"I need a wife who cannot be bought by the Gibsons, who does not want my money, and who will not fall in love with me and make this complicated."

Mara snorted.

Nina almost smiled. It surprised her. "That's a very romantic list."

"It is a practical one."

"And you picked me because I'm already in a fight with the Gibsons."

"I picked you," Lucian said, "because you are the only person in two cities who I am certain will not sell me out to Gideon. He already tried to buy you. You said no."

Nina looked down at the folder.

There was something he wasn't saying. She could feel it. A pause in the wrong place, a word he swallowed. She had spent three years in rooms where people told her half-truths for a living, and she could usually tell where the missing half sat.

But she couldn't tell what it was.

"I have terms," Nina said.

Mara pulled out a pen.

"Go on," Lucian said.

"One. Everything I have invented, and everything I invent in the future, stays mine. In writing. You never own it. Meridian never owns it."

"Already drafted." He tapped the folder. "Page nine."

She turned to it. It was there, in plain words, signed.

"Two. If I lose the hearing, I owe you nothing."

"If you lose, the contract is void. You will owe me nothing, and I will still pay the fees."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because I do not want to be the second man who took something from you."

It was an odd sentence. He said it without any weight, but Nina felt it hit somewhere low in her chest and stay there.

"Three," she said, slower. "Nobody is allowed to tell me who I am. Not you, not your board, not a newspaper."

"Agreed."

"Four. After a year, I walk out. No fight."

"No fight."

Mara tapped her pen against the table. "Mr. Vance. I'll be honest. I think this is insane."

"I understand."

"I think my client is vulnerable right now, and you know it."

"I do."

"And I think this is exactly the kind of deal that looks bad on camera."

"It will look bad. For about a week." Lucian's eyes didn't move from Nina's face. "Then it will look like a woman who fought her way out of a cage and found someone willing to stand next to her. That is a story people like."

Nina let out a breath. It sounded loud in the quiet room.

"I need time," she said.

"You have until the hearing."

"That's two weeks."

"I will not rush you. But the offer is not open forever. By the time Gideon realizes I am helping you, he will make it very expensive."

Mara stood. "We're leaving."

Nina stood too. She took the folder and tucked it under her arm. At the door, she turned back.

"Mr. Vance."

"Yes?"

"You were at the Harbor City office that night. Before I called James. Why?"

"A meeting."

"With me?"

"With the division head." He paused. "I wanted to see if the person behind those numbers was real."

"And?"

He looked at her for a long moment. "She was."

In the elevator, Mara stared at the numbers climbing on the display. "I need you to hear me," she said. "That man is dangerous."

"I know."

"He's polite. He's smart. He has a plan for everything. And you don't know what he really wants."

"I know that too."

"So you're going to say no."

Nina leaned her head back against the cool metal wall. "I don't know yet."

The doors opened on the lobby. Theo was waiting at the entrance, holding a thin envelope.

"One more thing, Ms. Walker," he said. "Mr. Vance asked me to give you this. He said you would want it before you decide."

Nina opened the envelope. Inside was a single printed photo and a time stamp.

It was the photo from the news. Nina on the steps of the plane, hair loose, Lucian at the top. But the time stamp on the corner was clear.

10:14 p.m.

"That's when she boarded," Theo said. "Mr. Vance's plane was in the air by 10:20. The photo was sent to the press at 10:09."

Nina's stomach dropped.

"That's before I got there."

"Yes," Theo said. "Someone knew you were coming. Before you did."