But I also knew a smoke screen when I saw one.
“Understood,” I said. Mark kept looking at me like it was my turn to talk.
“Is everything okay, Kat?” he asked. He could tell something was up.
“Oh, yes … Cleo, you know, the usual. But don’t worry. I’m on this.”
And I would be, until I could figure out a graceful way not to be.
Mark nodded. “Thank you, Kat. I really appreciate having you at the wheel here,” he said. “Obviously, keeping Darden happy is critical. The billables from this lawsuit alone will help keep the lights on, and getting Darden’s entire book of business would secure the firm’s future for years. But for any of that to happen,we are going to need to sort this Sinclair situation first—Darden’s general counsel has made that abundantly clear. On a personal level, Phil Beaumont is also an old friend, and frankly, I’ve never seen him so upset. He feels genuinely awful about what’s happened to the families impacted by this drug; all of Darden’s top-level management does. They want to make this right.”
“Understood.” I nodded, tucked away my notebook, and stood to leave.
“Wait, Kat,” Mark said quietly as I headed for the door. “About Cleo. She’ll be okay?”
“Presumably, yes. You know Cleo—she’s always liked to push the envelope.” I wanted so badly in that moment to confide in Mark about Kyle. I wanted to tell him about the anonymous messages I was getting, too. I wanted to tell him everything. But that would also mean telling him what I’d done all those years ago. And even with all the secrets between us, that crossed a whole different kind of line. “In the meantime, hopefully she won’t worry me to death.”
Mark smiled.
“Cleo is very lucky to have you looking out for her, that’s for sure. Eventually, she’ll realize that. They always do.”
Cleo
FOURTEEN HOURS GONE
“I’m sorry about your mom,” Will says after we’ve walked along the Hudson for a while in silence. His broad shoulders are hunched against the chilly wind. “I know that things with the two of you are not the best. I’m sure that makes it all … worse. Or, at least, more complicated. When you have mixed feelings about someone and then something bad happens, you feel … guilty, on top of everything else.”
Exactly.
Things with Will might not be perfect, but God, can he articulate things in a way that I could never. My feelings have always been this huge, tangled mess. Like my emotions don’t always pass through my brain. My therapist, Evie, has helped me see that doesn’t mean there is something wrong with me. But it’s satisfying also hearing it from someone who isn’t on my mom’s payroll.
“You’re right,” I say to him as I move out of the path of a child wobbling on a bike. “It is complicated. I’m really worried but still mad and also confused because I’m not even sure who I’m mad at anymore.”
“What do you mean?” Will asks, fixing his bright blue eyes on me. Sometimes those eyes are all I can see.
“I don’t know … these things I’m learning about her that don’t even seem like her.”
“Like the dating?”
“And her childhood.”
We are quiet for a time. Watching the runners, and the bikers, the families pushing strollers. I like being here with Will. Away from school, away from everything.
“Also, a kidnapping with no ransom demand doesn’t exactly make any sense.”
“What do the police say?” he asks.
“They think my dad is suspect number one. And maybe me number two.”
“That seems like a good use of their time.”
“My dad apparently told Detective Wilson about my mom and me arguing about the Kyle situation.”
Will raises his eyebrows. “Why would he do that?”
“I don’t know.” I tense—if I talk too much about my dad betraying me, I may lose it.
“I’m sorry.” Will reaches for my hand, wrapping his strong, sure fingers tight around mine. “I’m sorry,” he says again. Like it’s an action instead of a word.
