“What about work?”
“I want to build something new.”
“Like what?” I ask.
He's quiet for a moment. Not stalling, just looking at the horizon and thinking.
“I want to make something that doesn't need to be hidden," he says. "The old structure—the offshore mechanisms, the layered entities—it worked but it worked because it was designed to stay invisible. I don't want to build something invisible again." He pauses. "I want to build something people can look at."
"What does that look like?"
"I don't know yet. But I want your name on it."
I look at him. "My name?”
"Whatever I build next, I want it to be ours. Not Crawford Group part two. I want it to be ours." He looks at me steadily. "You've been in this for months. You read the files and you asked the questions and you found Ashley when none of us thought to look. That deserves more than watching from the sidelines."
The water moves in front of us, dark and steady.
“I can help you with whatever you want. You know that,” I say with a small smile.
“I know. And that’s why I love you.”
“I love you too.
He holds my gaze for a moment. Then he takes my hand and we sit there on the blanket with the water in front of us and the stars above and laughter somewhere down the beach. It’s the first time in a year that I feel like what comes next might actually be good.
Not just survivable, but something positive.
I find his hand and take it in mine. And he doesn’t let go.
37
PHOENIX
Dad calls at six while I'm still at the office.
I've learned to read his calls by now, the rhythm of them, whether he picks up fast or slow, whether there's background noise or silence. This one is quiet and measured. The call of a man who has something to say.
"Come by the house tonight," he says. "Alone."
I pause. "Everything okay?"
“Tonight."
I call Jade on the way to my car.
"I'm going to my dad's," I say. "I don't know how late.”
"Are you okay?"
"I don't know yet."
The drive to my parents’ house takes forty minutes. I run through the possibilities the whole way over.
The regulatory consent agreement closed last week. That's done. The Richard investigation is in the hands of the Crimes against Children Unit and moving at its own pace. There’s nothing I can do to speed things up. The frozen assets are partially released, the restructured company is functioning, the board members Nathan cultivated came through. All of it is in a state of resolution or active progress.
All of this means that whatever my father needs to say tonight is not related to that.
