Chapter 5 - What Chloe Had Seen
They met on Thursday morning at the office of Chloe's attorney.
Sadi brought her own lawyer. Roman waited downstairs with Arthur because she had asked him to.
Chloe sat with both hands around a paper cup. Without the silk dress and expensive bag positioned like proof of identity, she looked younger.
“I saw him kick you,” she said.
Nobody needed to ask which him.
“Then why did you tell the officer I fell?” Sadi asked.
Chloe looked at the cup.
“He told me you used to create scenes. That you wanted money. When he said you tripped, it was easier to agree than to admit I'd just watched my fiancé do something like that.”
Sadi let the silence continue.
Chloe's eyes filled.
“I wanted you to be what he said.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought that meant he couldn't treat me the way he treated you.”
Sadi recognized the bargain. She had once believed being useful enough would make Trevor kind.
Chloe had believed being expensive enough might accomplish the same thing.
“What changed?”
“He called you a problem we could manage. Then he told me exactly what I was going to say if anybody asked again.”
She pulled back her sleeve.
A narrow bruise marked the inside of her wrist.
Sadi didn't reach for her. She let Chloe cover it again when she was ready.
“I've arranged to correct my statement,” Chloe said. “My attorney explained that I need to be honest about the first one, too.”
“Yes.”
“I know that isn't an apology that fixes anything.”
“No,” Sadi said. “It isn't.”
Chloe nodded.
For once, she didn't ask a woman she had hurt to make the conversation easier.
Then her attorney brought out a second matter.
Chloe worked on marketing proposals for several clients of her father's firm. Voss Urban Holdings was one of them.
Her father, Malcolm Langford, was the firm's chairman.
“I helped assemble presentations for Mercer Street,” she explained. “Before Trevor became the lead attorney. I knew the building had tenants. He said they all had relocation agreements.”
“They don't,” Sadi said.
“I know that now.”
Chloe had asked to see the final presentation after Tuesday's incident. Trevor had refused. Then she had gone back through the project materials already provided to her for her own work and noticed something she could no longer explain away.
An engineering report described repairs that could be completed in stages. Its conclusion did not call for immediate evacuation of the entire building.
The summary being circulated to residents ended before that conclusion.
Some of the photographs used to suggest general danger showed the abandoned storage annex behind the apartments, not the occupied rooms.
Her attorney had reviewed how to identify the documents properly. Maya would receive the information through counsel and seek the underlying records through the appropriate channels.
Nobody promised one report would settle the whole dispute.
But it answered an important question.
The residents hadn't imagined the difference between the building they lived in and the one described in the notices.
“Why does your father want the building empty so badly?” Sadi asked.
Chloe stared at the table.
“He owns an interest in one of the companies participating in the project. I found out yesterday. It wasn't disclosed in the materials I worked on.”
Sadi leaned back.
The law firm was not simply delivering an unpleasant client's instructions.
The people choosing the words could profit from how frightened those words made the residents.
Outside, Roman stood when he saw her leave the elevator.
“Are you all right?”
She considered the question.
“I don't know yet.”
He nodded.
They walked to the car slowly. Her calf had stiffened while she sat.
“She corrected her statement?” he asked.
“She's going to. Her lawyer is arranging it.”
“Do you believe her?”
“I believe she's beginning to understand something. The rest will depend on what she does.”
He opened the car door.
Sadi paused before getting in.
“If you hadn't arrived at the store, would anybody have listened to me?”
Roman's expression changed.
He could have named the witnesses. The police officer. The camera.
He understood she was asking about the moments before any of those became useful.
“Someone should have,” he said.
“That isn't quite an answer.”
“It's the only honest one I have.”
She put a hand against his chest.
“I love being your wife. I need to know I can still be a whole person when you're out of the room.”
He covered her hand with his.
“Then I need to get better at leaving room.”
That afternoon, Maya obtained the complete report and began preparing an emergency application concerning the threatened displacement. Roman's investment counsel confirmed discrepancies between the project description and the information supplied to them.
The next funding installment remained paused while the review continued.
Voss Urban Holdings sent angry letters.
Malcolm Langford called Roman personally.
Sadi was beside him when the call came.
Roman put it on speaker after identifying who was present.
“We've both done business in difficult circumstances,” Langford said. “Surely we can prevent a personal disagreement from damaging a sound investment.”
“Supply the complete project records requested by counsel,” Roman said.
“Your wife appears to have a history with my partner.”
Roman looked at Sadi.
She shook her head once. She didn't need him to punish the insult.
“The residents' rights and the project records are the issue,” he replied. “Respond to the questions.”
He ended the call only after Langford said his attorneys would communicate further.
Sadi breathed out.
“Thank you.”
“For not threatening him?”
“For making him answer something.”
By evening, the weather had turned sharply colder.
May you like
Sadi put on a coat and went to the residents' meeting with Arthur.
At 7:06, Della was setting out the last pot of coffee when the lights went out.
