Chapter 9 - Small HandsJunie stopped sleeping with the lights off.
Adrian bought three night-lights.
She wanted all three.
Danielle said nothing when he installed a fourth.
For two weeks, Junie refused baths deeper than two inches.
The first time Adrian turned on the faucet too loudly, she screamed.
He shut it off immediately.
“Okay. Okay.”
Junie backed against the wall.
“No water.”
“No water.”
“You promise?”
“I promise.”
He sat on the bathroom floor in his suit.
Junie stared at him.
“You’re wearing shoes.”
“I noticed.”
“In the bathroom.”
“I’m a rebel.”
A tiny smile.
It disappeared quickly.
“Corinne coming?”
“No.”
“Ever?”
Adrian hated questions with no clean answer.
“She’s not coming here.”
“Because she pushed me?”
“Yes.”
Junie picked at a loose thread on her pajama sleeve.
“Was she mad because I’m bad?”
Adrian felt his heart break in a quieter way than it had on the yacht.
He moved closer.
“No.”
“She said—”
“I know what she said.”
“Maybe I’m hateful.”
“No.”
“Maybe I made her mad.”
“Junie.”
She looked up.
“What Corinne did was because of Corinne.”
Junie frowned.
“That’s confusing.”
“Yeah.”
He smiled sadly.
“Grown-ups make very complicated messes.”
“Why?”
“Because we’re not as smart as we pretend.”
That earned another small smile.
Adrian held out his hand.
She looked at it.
Then placed her palm in his.
The healing skin was still pink.
He thought about those fingers on the yacht.
Four years old.
Hanging over the ocean because the person Adrian had brought into her home had put her there.
“I’m sorry,” he said.
Junie looked confused.
“For what?”
“For not knowing.”
“Knowing what?”
He almost said who Corinne was.
Instead he said, “That you weren’t safe.”
Junie climbed into his lap.
“You came.”
“I did.”
“You ran really fast.”
“I did.”
“You looked funny.”
That startled a laugh out of him.
“Funny?”
“Your eyes were big.”
“I was scared.”
“Daddies get scared?”
“All the time.”
“My daddy?”
“Especially your daddy.”
She leaned into him.
“Don’t go away.”
“I won’t.”
But Adrian knew that was an impossible promise.
Parents left rooms.
They boarded planes.
They worked late.
Life itself eventually separated everyone.
The only promise he could honestly make was that he would stop confusing presence with provision.
Money had never made Junie safe.
Attention might have.
His phone buzzed.
Elise.
He ignored it.
Buzzed again.
Danielle appeared in the doorway.
“You should take that.”
“I’m busy.”
“You’ve been sitting on a bathroom floor for twenty minutes.”
“Exactly.”
Junie whispered, “Aunt Dani, Daddy’s rebelling.”
“I can see that.”
She pointed at Adrian’s shoes.
“Absolute criminal.”
Junie giggled.
Adrian kissed the top of her head.
“I’ll be right—”
He stopped.
The sentence would not come out.
Junie felt him tense.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
But it wasn’t nothing.
Those had been the last words he said before she went over the edge.
I’ll be right back.
Now they tasted like failure.
Danielle saw it.
She saw everything.
“Take the call here,” she said.
Adrian answered.
“Elise?”
“We found Bracken Maritime.”
He straightened.
“Who owns it?”
“Technically? A chain of holding companies.”
“Real answer.”
“A trust established by Marcus Bell’s brother-in-law.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Of course.”
“There’s more. Bracken invested in Cypress North.”
“Corinne’s company.”
“Yes.”
Junie was playing with his shoelace now, unaware.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“So Marcus’s network has been paying Corinne.”
“Correct.”
“Can we prove Marcus directed it?”
“Not yet.”
“What about Naomi?”
Elise paused.
“That’s why I called.”
Adrian looked at Danielle.
“What did you find?”
“An old storage account attached to Naomi’s foundation.”
“And?”
“Encrypted files.”
“Can you open them?”
“Some.”
“What’s inside?”
“Vendor audits. Board notes. Copies of messages.”
Adrian’s pulse accelerated.
“About Marcus?”
“Yes.”
He looked down at Junie’s small hand resting inside his.
Elise continued.
“Naomi suspected Marcus was diverting money from Brooks Marine years before she died.”
“How much?”
“We don’t know yet.”
“Why didn’t she give this to police?”
“Because suspicion isn’t proof.”
Adrian looked toward the running faucet he had turned off.
Naomi had been gathering proof.
Then cancer took her before she finished.
Marcus had continued.
He ruined Raymond.
Paid Corinne.
Pushed Northstar’s acquisition.
And somehow the camera watching Junie had been erased before Corinne shoved her.
The pieces were no longer random.
They were beginning to form a shape.
Junie tugged his sleeve.
“Daddy?”
“Yeah?”
“Your face is doing the big-eyes thing again.”
Adrian looked at her.
Then smiled.
“Sorry.”
“Are you scared?”
He thought about Marcus.
About Corinne.
About Naomi’s hidden files.
“Yes.”
Junie squeezed his finger.
“It’s okay.”
He almost laughed.
His four-year-old daughter was comforting him.
She had nearly fallen seven meters into the ocean and still had room inside herself to make someone else feel safe.
Adrian bent and kissed her forehead.
And in that moment he made himself a different promise.
Not that nothing bad would ever happen.
That would be a lie.
The promise was simpler.
When the next truth frightened him, he would not outsource it.
May you like
He would look directly at it.
No matter whose face he found there.
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