บททั้งหมดของ His Wedding Day Bride: บทที่ 11 - บทที่ 20

"Show me."Atlas was in the foyer. He'd come home in twenty-three minutes from his Park Avenue office, which was nine minutes faster than the normal drive. He set his coat on the console without looking at it. He held out his hand. I gave him the folder.He took it to the kitchen island. Margot had left at three; we were alone in the apartment. Marisol had stepped out at two-thirty for groceries; she'd come back at four. The grandfather clock in the hallway said three-forty-five.He laid the photographs out one at a time. He spent perhaps four seconds on each. When he came to the Soho restaurant photograph, the one with Caine Voss across the table from Carter, he didn't pause longer than he had on any other. He noted them. He moved on."Margaret sent these.""Yes.""She didn't send them to me.""No. She sent them to me."He set the last photograph down. He folded his arms. He looked at me for a count."Tell me what you understand from this.""I understand that Margaret Tang is signali

"Tell me how you'd structure it."Atlas was in the library at eleven. He'd taken his jacket off. The portfolio Hudson had given him at lunch was open on the table between us. I'd come into the library at ten to read. I hadn't been able to read. I'd been thinking about the merger in my head for six hours."I don't know enough yet to structure it.""Tell me what you'd ask first."I sat with the question for a count."I'd ask what the regulatory exposure looks like. Westbrook Capital is a private bank with two hundred client families. Marchetti Holdings is a private investment firm. Combining the wealth-management arms would require disclosures I don't yet understand. I'd like to know what the SEC will say. What the Italian regulators will say. Whether the Tang positions in either firm will trigger additional review."He set down his glass of water."Continue.""I'd ask what the Sterling reaction will be. Aldrich Sterling has been your father's friend for thirty years. He's been my fathe

"You're late, cara."Cosima was at the door of the Carlyle in dark green wool. The third Wednesday of the month. The lunch that had been Cosima's and Eleanor's for forty-one years. Today there were three places set at the corner table on the eighteenth floor."I'm five minutes early.""You're forty-one years late. It's the same difference."I let her take my coat. The maitre d', a small grey-haired man named Gaspard who had known my mother since she was nineteen, said nothing when I walked past him. He had been told. He wouldn't, in any of the years that followed, mention to anyone outside the lunch that I had been at the table.My mother was already seated. So was Margaret Tang.Margaret was in cream silk and the jade necklace I'd noticed at the gala. Eleanor was in the navy. Cosima sat between them. I sat opposite Cosima.Gaspard brought a small tray of pastries. He left."Lu," my mother said. "We are going to tell you why this lunch matters.""All right."Cosima leaned back. Margar

"Ms. Sinclair."Theron Vance was at the table on the eastern side of the Marchetti Foundation cocktail reception. He'd been there for ten minutes. He hadn't moved. He had a glass of water in his hand he wasn't drinking. He was waiting for Margot to come to him.Margot came to him.She'd worn the green silk dress I'd told her not to wear because the green silk dress had been designed for women who wanted to make a man notice them, and Margot had spent six years claiming she didn't want to make any man notice her. She had worn it tonight anyway. She was carrying a glass of champagne she had no intention of finishing."Mr. Vance.""Margot. I told you the other night.""Did you. I don't remember. We argued about Joan Didion. I was drunk on bourbon. I retain very little of what is said to me on bourbon.""You retain everything that's said to you on bourbon. You're testing whether I'll repeat myself."She looked at him for a long count. I'd known Margot for twenty years. I hadn't, in any of

"Daddy."Hudson was at the Westbrook Capital board meeting at three on Thursday afternoon. I'd come uptown for a Westbrook Foundation board meeting on the floor below. I'd come up because his secretary had called the gallery at two and asked me to."Lu. Sit."He was in his office. The door was closed. He had a file open in front of him. He hadn't been at the board meeting downstairs that had ended ninety seconds ago. Theron Vance had been there in his absence."Daddy. What.""Caine Voss came to my office at one-fifteen."I sat down."He asked to discuss the Pinnacle Asset Group structure. He said he had questions a Marchetti shareholder might want answered.""Caine isn't a Marchetti shareholder.""No. He is, however, a Voss family member with a financial position in a Marchetti subsidiary through a shell company. He is standing to ask. He came to me because he wanted me to ask Atlas. He knew Atlas was in Florence.""What did you tell him?""I told him I had no interest in the question