Chapter 14: The Paper He Signed

Hattie brought Lydia to the tower garage at half past eight.

Lydia climbed out of Hattie's Corolla in the grey dress from the night before, with a hospital blanket around her shoulders.

The bruise on her upper arm had four fingers in it.

"I'm not here for you," she said to me. "I want that understood."

"All right."

"I'm here because he did this at three this morning, when I said I'd go to a lawyer."

"Then you're welcome," I said.

She nodded once and looked at her shoes.

Brogan stood beside the black car with his good hand in his pocket.

He kept his eyes on the ramp, and I knew he was watching every car that came down it.

The old lawyer was waiting by the elevator in a dark overcoat, holding his leather case.

"Mrs. Buckley," he said. "A minute, before the board. It concerns your husband."

"Say it in front of him."

"I would rather say it to you first."

Brogan stepped back without a word.

He took Lydia and Hattie to the far side of the car and gave us the whole width of the garage.

The old man opened his case and took out a single folded document.

"Your husband came to my office the morning after your wedding," he said. "He was in a brace and he had not slept."

"Why?"

"To sign this."

I read it standing up.

It was two pages in dense type, and I read the first paragraph three times.

Brogan Buckley assigned all of his shares in Reeve Holdings, twenty percent of the company, to the trust for his stepbrother's unborn child.

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