Chapter 9 - The Number
Forty-six million dollars.
That was the number newspapers printed.
It was not exact.
Rebecca explained that private-company valuations changed and the disputed shares could be worth more or less depending on the restructuring.
Nobody cared.
Forty-six million sounded better in headlines.
At school, Marcus became rich overnight.
Not actually.
Socially.
Students who had ignored him suddenly wanted explanations.
One boy asked whether Marcus planned to buy a Lamborghini.
Another asked whether he could “borrow twenty grand.”
Marcus ate lunch in the stairwell.
Tessa found him.
“Your fans miss you.”
“Tell them I died.”
“Can I inherit?”
He laughed.
Then he became serious.
“I hate this.”
“The money?”
“The number.”
Tessa sat beside him.
“It makes everything look fake.”
“Your dad being framed isn’t fake.”
“But now everyone thinks Mom is fighting because she wants forty-six million dollars.”
“Does she?”
Marcus didn’t know.
That frightened him.
That evening he asked.
Linda was washing dishes.
“If the shares come back, will you keep them?”
She shut off the water.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s what you said before.”
“Because I still don’t know.”
“Would you fight this if they were worth nothing?”
Linda turned.
“Yes.”
“Would Grandpa?”
That question was harder.
“I think so.”
Marcus noticed she had not said yes.
“Would you?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure?”
Linda dried her hands.
“I spent eleven years trying not to reopen this because I told myself Daniel had chosen peace.”
“You chose peace.”
She flinched.
“You’re right.”
Marcus waited.
“If there were no shares,” Linda said, “I would still want his name cleared.”
“Then why didn’t you do it before?”
“Because until now I had no proof.”
“You had Julian’s phone call.”
“I had a phone call from a man who would deny it.”
“You had Dad.”
“Daniel was dead.”
Marcus looked away.
Linda’s voice softened.
“And I was tired.”
He understood that more than he wanted to.
Richard came to Queens for the first time in years two nights later.
He looked absurd in Linda’s small kitchen.
Too tall.
Too formal.
Marcus watched him examine the scratched table where Daniel had helped Marcus with kindergarten drawings.
Richard touched one gouge.
“Daniel made that.”
Linda stared.
“You remember?”
“He was trying to repair the chair.”
Marcus smiled.
“He was terrible at repairs.”
Richard smiled too.
“Yes.”
The moment was almost warm.
Then Linda asked, “Why are you here?”
Richard sat.
“The board wants me to postpone the restructuring.”
“Good.”
“It could cost the company significantly.”
Marcus waited for the complaint.
It did not come.
“I’m postponing it.”
Linda looked surprised.
“Caroline?”
“Opposed.”
“Of course.”
Richard removed a folder.
“The independent committee wants to interview you formally.”
Linda became tense.
“About what?”
“Everything.”
“The settlement?”
“Yes.”
“Julian’s call?”
“Yes.”
“My decision to ask Daniel to sign?”
“Yes.”
Marcus watched fear return.
Linda had spent eleven years hiding from this room even when the room existed only in her memory.
Richard noticed.
“You don’t have to do it for me.”
She looked at him.
“I know.”
“You don’t have to protect the company.”
“I know.”
“You also don’t have to protect Daniel from looking human.”
Linda’s face changed.
Marcus understood the sentence.
Clearing Daniel’s name did not require turning him into a saint.
He had criticized Vale.
He had been angry.
He had signed a false confession.
He had accepted settlement money.
None of those facts made him a thief.
Linda sat.
“I’ll do the interview.”
Richard nodded.
Then Marcus asked, “Did you bring anything else?”
Richard looked almost guilty.
“Yes.”
He took out a small velvet box.
Marcus tensed.
Richard opened it.
The gold watch.
Eleanor’s watch.
The one Caroline had planted.
Marcus stared.
“I don’t want it.”
“That’s fine.”
“Why bring it?”
“Because your grandmother left instructions.”
Linda looked surprised.
“What instructions?”
Richard removed a folded card from beneath the watch.
Eleanor’s handwriting.
For Marcus when he is old enough to understand that belonging is not something this family gets to vote on.
Marcus stared.
Linda covered her mouth.
Richard whispered, “I never read the card until after the dinner.”
“Why not?”
“Because Caroline managed Eleanor’s personal inventory after she died.”
The room went silent.
Marcus looked at the watch.
“Caroline knew Grandma wanted me to have it.”
“Yes.”
“She planted my own inheritance in my pocket and called me a thief.”
Richard nodded.
The cruelty of it was almost elegant.
Marcus closed the box.
“Keep it.”
“For now?”
“No.”
Richard waited.
Marcus looked at the old scratched kitchen table.
“I don’t need a watch to prove I belong.”
Richard’s eyes filled.
“No.”
Marcus looked at him.
May you like
“I need you to prove Dad did.”
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