Chapter 17: Disowned

Ethan's father held the meeting in the room where he had announced me.

It was a long panelled study at the Westport house, with a table under a green lamp and four chairs set on one side.

He sat at the head.

The family lawyer sat on his right, with a leather folder.

A thin man from the bank sat on his left and would not look at me.

Gilbert leaned against the bookshelves with a glass in his hand and a grin he was working hard to keep small.

Ethan took the chair opposite his father.

He had left the cane in the car.

I stood behind his chair, and nobody asked me to sit.

"I watched your video," his father said to me. "It was effective."

"Thank you."

"It was also reckless. You've put the Leverett name on a baker's counter."

"It was already on the paper," I said. "I only gave it a seeded loaf."

Gilbert made a noise into his glass.

His father did not smile.

"Ethan," he said. "I'll be brief. Your brother tells me you have kept an item from the night of the accident."

Ethan's face did not move.

"A dashcam card," his father said. "He says the camera was still in the wreck when it was towed, and the card was gone."

"The wreck was in a yard for two years," Ethan said. "He only thought of it this week."

"I want it. Tonight, in this room, before witnesses."

"Why?"

"Because it contains a false impression of this family."

"It contains a stone wall," Ethan said, "and your older son's voice."

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