Chapter 15: The Family Dinner

"Don't leave when he starts," Tristan's mother said on the phone. "Whatever he says, stay in the room."

"Why me?" I asked.

"Because you're the only person who will hear him without wanting something."

I looked at Piers, who was awake beside me and had heard every word.

"We'll go," he said.

The restaurant was on the top floor of a hotel the Hunsickers owned a share of.

The private room had one long table, white linen, and a window full of London lights.

Tristan was already there, standing behind a chair at the head of the table.

He had not slept in three days, and it showed.

His parents sat on one side, very straight.

His father did not look at me, and his mother did.

Margot sat across from them with her parents, a silver-haired man and a pale woman in pearls.

Rosalind came in at my elbow with the plastic crate in both arms.

"He asked me to bring it," she said.

"I haven't decided if I'm a witness or a weapon."

"Both," said Piers.

Hugh arrived last, and kissed Margot's mother on the cheek.

He sat down in the empty chair by the window.

He smiled around the table.

"Isn't this nice," he said. "A family dinner."

"It isn't," Tristan said.

His voice cracked on the second word, and he started again.

"Mr. Hunsicker, I owe you the truth before anybody signs anything."

"My accounts have not been mine for six years."

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