Chapter 21: The Board Room

Becky's POV

On the first Monday in December I walked into the Harmon Furniture boardroom in a black wool dress, with my hair up.

I had left Theo in the lobby with Tamara, who was holding the carrier with both hands and glaring at the receptionist.

Hamish was in the lobby too, pretending to read a catalog of dining chairs.

Under my sleeve I wore his watch, which he had pressed into my hand that morning.

"So you know I'm in the building," he had said.

Russell had asked me to come.

His message had been short.

Please be there when I tell the board. I won't ask you for anything.

The boardroom was long and walnut-paneled, with a portrait of old Mr. Harmon at one end.

At the other end a window looked out on the river.

Three men in their sixties sat on one side of the table with leather folders.

Virginia sat at the head, in navy silk, with her pearls on and her hands folded.

"Rebecca," she said. "I wasn't told you would be present."

"I wasn't told either," I said. "I was invited."

Russell stood at the foot of the table.

He had shaved, and he wore a gray suit, and his hands were shaking so hard he put them flat on the wood.

"Gentlemen," he said. "Thank you for coming on short notice. I have three things to say."

"Russell," Virginia said. "Sit down."

"No, Mother."

It was the first time I had ever heard him say it.

"The first thing," he said. "Four years ago, on the ninth of March, my daughter died while I was in bed with another woman.

"My phone was switched off, and my wife called me nine times.

"I let her believe for four years that I'd been at the office."