Chapter 19: The Uncle's Office

Harvey's POV

At breakfast on Tuesday, Tilda slid a folded paper across the table to me for the second time in four days.

"No," I said, before I had read it.

"You don't know what it is."

"It's a settlement. You sell a block of shares to my uncle, he drops the motion, and the Fosdicks take a bigger piece of the company."

She put down her coffee.

"The lawyer drew it up," she said. "Ten percent. It's mine to sell."

"It is."

"Then why are you looking at me like that?"

"Because it's my name he's attacking," I said. "I won't have you pay for it with my grandfather's company."

"It isn't only your name."

"The motion says our marriage is a lie. That is mine to answer."

"Harvey."

"If you buy this off, he learns that I can be bought off through you." I pushed the paper back to her. "I will not hand him that."

I stood up, and I took my coat from the hook.

I did not look at the hook beside it, where her coat hung, as it had every morning for ten days.

I had been checking it each morning since the billing desk.

I had not told her that.

Fosdick Holdings occupied the top four floors of a glass tower across from the courthouse.

I had been in the building twice in my life, both times for funerals of men who had owned part of it.

My uncle's office was on the top floor, and it had the quiet of an office where deals were closed at a whisper.

Cory's father stood at his window with his hands behind him.

"Harvey," he said, without turning. "I expected you to send the lawyers."

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