CHAPTER 4: Robert Harlan Answers

The call connected on the second ring.
Across town, Robert Harlan sat behind a black desk in a private office where the lamps were never too bright and the phones were never allowed to ring twice without reason.
Emma heard his breath before his voice.
“Emma?”
That single word undid the room more than shouting could have.
Grant’s face changed. Not much. Only the eyes first, then the mouth. He had heard the name Robert Harlan in meetings, on loan documents, in the careful jokes of men who owed money to older money.
Sloane sat up straighter.
Emma kept the phone close to her cheek.
“Dad,” she said, very softly. “I need you to listen before he makes another lie.”
Robert did not ask if she was being dramatic.
He did not ask what she had done to cause it.
He asked one question, calm enough to freeze the penthouse.
“Is he still in the room?”
Emma looked at Grant.
“Yes.”
Robert had been strict when Emma was young, but never careless with her tears. He was the kind of father who could miss a birthday dinner because of a merger and still remember exactly how she took her coffee the next morning.
So when he heard the silence behind her voice, he understood more than Grant wanted him to.