His Rival Fixed What He Broke novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: The Doors
Margot hears Otto tell the board her grandfather moves to a care home at six; she opens the doors, Otto smashes the watch, and Elias Brubaker tells her he knows which door they will use.
The heavy oak doors of the boardroom stood open one hand's width, and Otto's voice came through the gap.
Margot Ellery stopped in the corridor on the twenty-second floor.
Her fingers tightened on the velvet box in her hand.
Inside it was a 1943 Patek Philippe in a steel case, and she had spent four months and most of her savings finding it.
Today was their third anniversary.
Otto's chief of staff had met her at the elevator ten minutes ago, with a coffee already made the way Margot liked it.
"He'll be thrilled," she had said. "Go right in. Don't knock, it's only the budget."
Margot had thanked her and walked down the corridor smiling.
Now she stood very still and listened.
"Thaddeus shouldn't sign anything after Friday, for his own sake," Otto said.
His voice was warm and easy, the voice he used for donors.
"The doctor's letter is ready. Hartwell House takes him at six tonight, and the van is already booked."
Somebody at the table coughed.
"And Margot?" an older director asked.
Otto laughed softly.
"Margot signs whatever I put in front of her. She signed her vote over to me last year between the dessert menus, and she didn't read a line."
"Does she know where her grandfather is going?"
"She thinks I'm saving him," Otto said. "Let her think so until Thursday the twenty-sixth."
Claire's voice came next, light and pleased.
"I'll keep her busy with the anniversary. She's already told me she's bringing him a present."
Margot's hand had gone cold around the box.
She took out her phone and pressed record through the gap.
She held it there for a full minute, and Otto kept talking.
Then she put the phone in her pocket, set her shoulders, and pushed the doors open.
Nine directors turned in their chairs.
Otto sat at the head of the long table with his sleeves rolled, and his smile was in place before he had finished turning.
"Margot, love. You're early."
"I heard all of it," she said.
Nobody at the table moved.
Claire stood by the window with a tablet against her chest and said nothing at all.
Margot walked up to the table and took out her phone.
She set it down in the middle and played the recording.
Otto's voice filled the room. Thaddeus signs nothing after Friday. She signs whatever I put in front of her.
When it ended, Otto sighed and shook his head at the directors.
"I'm so sorry, everyone. She's been under terrible strain since Thaddeus's episodes started."
"Otto."
"Love, people can fake a voice with a laptop now. You're exhausted. Let Claire take you home."
An older director looked at the table.
Another one looked at his hands.
Not one of them looked at her.
"I bought you something," Margot said.
She put the velvet box on the polished wood and opened it.
The watch lay on the cream satin with its old gold numerals.
Otto glanced down at it, and for half a second his hand lifted away from the table and stayed in the air.
Then he swept the box off the table with his forearm.
It hit the marble floor and the watch skidded out across it.
The crystal had a crack across the face when it stopped.
"I never wanted your junk," he said, quiet and flat, in front of nine directors.
"You never looked at it."
"Take your toys and go home, Margot."
She turned around.
A man was standing in the corridor doorway, and she did not know how long he had been there.
He was tall, in a dark overcoat, with black hair and grey eyes, and she knew his face from a hundred photographs in the trade papers.
Elias Brubaker.
Otto had told her once that this man would take the roof off their house if she let him through the front door.
Elias walked past her without a word and crouched on the marble.
He picked up the watch and turned it over to look at the back of the case.
Margot could see letters engraved there, two of them, worn smooth.
He read them, and for a while he said nothing at all.
Then he stood, closed the case, and held it out to her.
"The crystal's the only thing that broke," he said. "That can be fixed."
His voice was low and level.
"Mr. Brubaker," Otto said from the table, sharper now. "This is a private board meeting."
Elias didn't look at him.
"Ms. Ellery," he said to her, "they move your grandfather at six, and I know which door they're using."
She looked at the directors and at the open doors behind her.
She looked at her husband, who was already reaching for his phone, ready to be sorry.
So she took the watch from Elias and walked out with him.
"Margot," Otto called. "You walk out that door, you walk out of everything."
She didn't turn around.
"Good," she said.
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