“I don’t like you in Sausalito right now,” he replies.
“We can get the penthouse at the Fairmont,” I offer.
“Or maybe you stay with us?” Caroline says. “We’ve got room for you and your team.”
Everyone looks at Jim.
“Consider yourself warned when I tell you that Kate and probably Alicia will be over shortly after you arrive to bust your balls over this thing with Lilly.”
I run my hands through my hair. “Will they be worse than my own daughters?”
“They’re angry enough that they might be,” Jim warns.
“It’s a risk I’ll have to take,” I tell him. “This is what needs to be done.” I stand and I walk upstairs to see the girls. We need to have a talk.
Chapter 23
Lilly
I couldn’t sleep last night. The house was too quiet to be here alone. I got my boxes packed and crashed shortly after midnight, only to be up again early this morning. I still don’t know what to do with myself.
I think Nate texted me again, but I’m not prepared to deal with him yet. I have to get myself together before I can stand up to whatever else he’s going to throw at me. He may be sorry I left, but that’s not the same as being ready to have me as part of his life.
I can’t take any of what I did back—nor do I want to—and I don’t know what I could’ve done besides leave. I have to protect myself. I’m not about to sit around where I’m not wanted or trusted ever again. But I didn’t explain my departure to the girls, which probably feels like a betrayal. I hate the thought of causing them pain. My tears fall, and I hold a pillow on the couch for comfort. What am I going to do?
I’m worried about Katrina and the mess with the bullies. She’s worried about those pictures of her mom and how it will affect Nate. She’s only sixteen, and she’s had to deal with so much. I’m not sure Nate has the skills to help her, and there isn’t anyone else who can step in. She doesn’t tell her therapist anything.
Bex’s nightmares seem to get worse when there’s stress or big changes in her routine. She needs stability and lots of affirmation. Right now, she’s probably screaming out several times a night. I wish I could hold her and talk her through. This kills me.
I feel like I have nothing left. I don’t know how to put my life, which has been on hold for so long, back together.
But I do know Jim and his tricks, and there could be someone a lot worse than him looking for me right now, because of my connection to the Lancasters, so I download my contacts onto my computer and wipe the phone clean. It’s not my phone anyway; it’s part of the Lancasters’ family plan. I also remove the SIM card after calling a rideshare. I leave both items on the counter at the house. I’ll get a new phone.
I have the driver stop at the bank, and I drain my accounts of cash and then direct him to a storage place. I leave almost everything I have there, just keeping three days of clothing that I can carry in my backpack.
The last stop is my mom’s nursing home. I’ve thought about moving her, but because she’s on Medicare, the waiting lists are long, and it wouldn’t be easy. I’m going to have to think on that for now. But with everything that’s happening, and now that I’m outside the Lancaster security bubble, I’m nervous that Christina Daniels’ friends will come after Mom or me to get to Nate.
I find my mom in a sitting area overlooking the gardens. “Mommy!” I give her a hug. She can’t hug me back, but I swear she recognizes that I’m here. I sit with her and hold her hand. I tell her all about our time in Whistler—how much the girls have grown, and my disappointment with the school and how they managed Katrina’s bullying—because I don’t know what else to talk about. That’s been my life.
When we return to her room, I turn her television to The View and watch it with her. I tell her all about my feelings for Nate and how they’ve evolved. “When he told me he loved me, a part of me wishes I had told him I loved him back. I do, but I wanted to be honest with him first. I wanted him to know how I’d come to be in his house. I wasn’t expecting that he’d react the way he did. Now everything just feels awful.”
I hold her tight and cry on her shoulder. I want so much for her to reach out and tell me it’ll be okay, but she just sits there like a board. That’s all she can do.
When her physical therapist arrives, I take that as my cue to leave. “Mom, I’ll try to be back tomorrow. I need to find a place to stay and figure out my transportation issue.” I haven’t needed a car in a long time, but right now that’s changed.
As I walk back by the front desk, I ask to speak with the manager on duty.
“How can we help you, Ms. Duval?” she asks.
“Do you have a moment?”
“Of course.” She leads me to her office and offers me a seat.
I figure I need to get as close as I can to the truth. “Until recently, I worked for Nate Lancaster and his family. They’ve gone into hiding. I’m concerned that someone may come looking for me through my mom. If anyone calls and asks about her, would it be possible for you to tell them she doesn’t live here? Maybe we use her maiden name?”
The manager nods. “We have strange things like this happen more often than you would think. We can just remove her from the list of residents. Right now, you’re the only one allowed to visit her, and you’re her contact for any Medicare issues.”
The anxiety in my shoulders relaxes. I know this solution is only temporary, but it will have to do for now. “I need to get a new phone today, but I’ll call you with the number this afternoon.”
“It’s so tragic what happened to that family,” she says. “What was your role with them?”
“I was their nanny.”
“I can’t even imagine how rough it’s been.”
I nod as I stand and extend my hand. “Thank you.”
I throw my backpack over my shoulder and head into town. I walk into the first cell carrier I find and buy a new phone. It’s a pay as you go, so it’s perfect for what I need right now. I then go in search of caffeine and free wi-fi so I can look for a place to live and look through the job openings. Even if the work is short lived, it will allow me to get my feet on the ground.
I settle in at Starbucks with a latte and soon find there’s a room for rent not too far from here. I call, and it’s an older woman who wants a female roommate. We make a plan for me to come by a little later and check it out.
Until it’s time to walk to her place, I check through about two dozen jobs I’m qualified for and apply for the ones that seem like working remotely would be possible. Finding a job that works for me may be the hard part.
When it’s time, I walk over to the address the woman gave me and introduce myself. Mabel Jones welcomes me, and I can smell the chocolate chip cookies she’s made. Her living room is filled with cases of Hummel figurines, a fancy television, and two La-Z-boy chairs.
“My granddaughter lived with me until about three months ago, but she fell in love with a nice boy. I’m happy for her, but I need the income. My Ralph’s social security isn’t enough to live on.”
“How much is the room per month?”
“Two hundred and fifty dollars. You would have a key and can come and go. I have cable, and my son-in-law has made sure I have good wi-fi. You can join me for dinner or not.” She doesn’t look at me when she says the last part.
I get the feeling she’s quite lonely. “That sounds good, but I’m not sure how long I’ll stay. I’m looking for work, and I’d like to visit my mom every day. She’s over at Green Valley Retirement Home.”
“That’s where my kids want to send me.”
“My mom’s in the stroke unit. She’s been there since she was forty-one. She needs twenty-four-hour care.”
“That must be so difficult for you.”
“It’s very hard. My father’s a college professor and was often busy, so it was the two of us against the world. Now she’s mostly a shell of a woman.”
“That’s just awful. I’m gl
ad you’re here. Do you have a boyfriend?”
“No. I was seeing someone, but we’ve broken it off.”
“Let me show you the room.”
She walks me back to a small bedroom with a desk and a double bed.
“I made that quilt,” she says, gesturing toward the bed. “It’s a double wedding ring quilt, which symbolizes love and romance. It worked for my granddaughter, Ellen. Maybe it would work for you.”
“I think I’m taking a break from men, but the room is perfect for what I need. I have five hundred dollars in cash I can give you for the first and last months’ rent.”
Her eyes grow wide. “Thank you. That would be wonderful.”
We walk back to the living room, and she hands me a key from a hook next to her front door.
Feeling pretty accomplished, I decide to run a few more errands. As I walk, I decide I’ll leave most of my things in storage. I go to Safeway and buy some juice and the ingredients for easy meals. I didn’t see a microwave, so it’ll be sandwiches and canned soups. It’s not fancy, but I won’t go hungry, and I’ll have a little left to order coffee and use the wi-fi at a coffee shop. Mabel is lovely, but I’ll probably want a little space on occasion.
I want to update my mom on all this, so I walk back over to her nursing home. When I enter, I hand the receptionist my new phone number and continue back to Mom’s room.
She can’t physically register that I’m here, but I still hug her close. I sit down and tell her all about my day.
“All I need now is a job. I guess if I don’t hear anything back, I can apply at the grocery store. I want to stay close to you.”
When it starts to get late, I walk back and find Mrs. Jones sitting on the couch, splitting her attention between a puzzle and the television.
“Did you eat?” she asks.
I smile. “I was visiting my mom.”
“I have some leftover chicken, if you’d like some.”
“I don’t want to eat all your profits.”
She shrugs. “I came into some money recently.”
I laugh.
She sets me up a little tray and brings out a roasted chicken breast and leg with some green beans and mashed potatoes. “The potatoes are instant, but I like them,” she says as she sets the plate down.
“This is an impressive meal.”
She smiles. “When I watch the sales, I can get two chickens for the price of one.”
“You’re quite the bargain hunter. You can teach me a lot.”
I eat my dinner and tell her about applying for jobs and my hope to work remotely.
“I’ll never understand how people can work from their home. I loved working in a busy advertising office in San Francisco. We girls would catch up on our dates and visit on our breaks and lunches. Everything today is rush, rush, rush.”
I nod. “I suppose you’re right.” Looking for a change of subject, I ask, “Will you tell me about Ralph?”
“He was the mailman. I know it’s not exciting work, but he always smiled and never had a bad day. Nothing got under his skin. When we decided to get married, he took a transfer up here so we could start a family. We have six kids. My oldest, Patrick, was killed in Iraq. That was a very dark time for us. Ralph had encouraged Patrick to join the Army because he thought it could get him a better job. It was our other kids who helped to pull us out of the black hole.”
“You were very lucky.”
“I know. I talk to Patrick every day. Now that my Ralph is there too, I just picture them playing a good game of cribbage.”
“I used to play cribbage with my mom. She always cleaned my clock.”
“Ralph always cleaned mine, too,” Mabel says with a smile.
I enjoy the roasted chicken and help her take care of maybe one hundred pieces of her five-thousand-piece puzzle.
After a while, I can see Mabel is getting tired. She’s sitting and watching me more than helping.
“I’m going to sleep well tonight,” I tell her. “Thank you again for dinner. It was incredibly kind of you.”
She smiles. “We can try again another night.”
“I’d like that.”
When I go into my room, I lie on the bed and think about what the girls might be doing tonight. It’s still early in Maui, and I’m hoping that’s where they’ve gone by now. I’ve never been to Hawaii. My dad dragged us all over Europe for history-based tours because it played well with his pseudo-intellectual friends. Those trips were interesting but never relaxing. The idea of sitting on a sandy beach with the waves crashing, sounds like a perfect retreat. Unfortunately, it isn’t in my future.
I roll to my side, face away from the door, and cry. I miss the girls so much. And the truth is, I miss Nate—even after the terrible accusation he made. I want to believe he didn’t mean it, but at the same time, things like that reveal who people really are, don’t they? I don’t know anything to do except try to move forward as best I can.
Chapter 24
Nate
“What do you mean you can’t find her mother? How hard can it be? What about finding out where the Medicare checks are sent?”
“We did, and they’re sent to a large nursing home system,” says Miles Carpenter, one of Clear Security’s leading tech project managers. “They own thirty facilities in the North Bay alone and another eighteen down south. We’ve called and checked them all, and she’s not listed anywhere.”
I take a deep breath. “Have we checked to see if Lilly has used her credit card?”
Miles shakes his head. “She took a cash withdrawal of just over ten-thousand dollars out of her account after leaving your home. No credit card usage.”
“What about a cell phone in her name?” I beg.
“Nothing we can find.”
I want to scream. This shouldn’t be so hard.
“She must be looking for work. Do we know her personal email address?”
Miles shakes his head. “All the communication she had before she worked for you was through her business account, and they shut that off when they fired her.”
I take a breath and compose myself. “I’m sorry, Miles. You guys have done an enormous amount of work. Thank you. We just have to find the thread that unravels this.”
He nods. “I’m still looking for it.”
I need to talk to Jim, but he’s not around right now. I don’t want to go back to Mason and Caroline’s and interrupt the girls and their studies—if they’re even awake yet, so I decide to visit SHN.
When I arrive, I run into William in the lobby.
“I was just talking about you,” he says.
I give him a curious look.
“I met with Brain Bursts this morning. They were a bit surprised that I knew about them terminating their founder.”
Now I’m interested. “Really? Did they say why they’d terminated her?”
“It sounds like they want to take the company in a different direction—away from stroke rehabilitation.”
“But isn’t that what SHN funded? Also, evidently Cecelia was an angel funder, and they’ve done nothing to bring her estate up to date. I would think I have some say in that decision.”
William nods. “Let’s talk to Mason. He may not be too thrilled with where they’re headed either.”
I follow him to a glass-walled conference room that overlooks the Bay Bridge and Treasure Island. Mason and Emerson soon join us.
William gives them the update on Brain Bursts.
Mason looks like he just stepped in dog poop on the sidewalk. “They can’t take the company in a different direction without talking to us,” he grinds out.
“Mackenzie Robinson has named herself CEO and terminated the relationship with Lilly Duval, the founder? Where does that leave us?” Emerson asks.
“She had legal counsel. Could we be vulnerable here?” Mason asks.
Emerson stands. “Let me pull in Sara. As our lawyer, she would have written that into the contract.”
I nod, and Emerso
n quickly returns with Sara on her heels, carrying a large file folder. “Great to see you, Nate.”
“Good to see you, too. We didn’t get our dance in Tuscany.”
She blushes. “My silly husband hogged me all night.”
She’s married to Caroline’s twin brother, who’s a good guy. She flips through the file and opens it to a thick stack of paper. “Here’s the original contract. I actually remember this, because it was signed by all parties but Lilly. When she reviewed the contract later, she realized it didn’t mention the agreement with Cecelia as an angel funder.”
I sit back. “Nowhere in my records do I have any notation that Cecelia sent them a check—except for the check she sent, which is from an account I was unaware of until Lilly pointed it out.” I turn to Emerson. “Do you know anything about the Women in Tech Shark Tank?”
She nods. “What do you want to know? I’m on the board. Whatever I don’t know, I can find out for you.”
“Do you think you could find out how many companies Cecelia gave money to through that event, and any amounts she might have promised? I know nothing about it.”
Emerson nods. “I’ll send an email right now to the head of our programs. She’d know.”
What a tangled-up mess this is. I wish I could talk to Lilly about it—and of course beg her to come back.
“Here it is in the contract,” Sara says after a moment. “It’s hidden, but it does say any change in leadership requires notifying the funders. And as the angel funder, Cecelia’s estate owns twenty percent of the business. SHN, as the first- and second-round funder, owns thirty percent.”
“Can you tell what the others at the signature own?”
Sara flips through the pages. “Lilly had twenty-one percent, Mackenzie has ten percent, and the employees present and future own the remaining nineteen percent—but until they’re distributed, they’re controlled by Lilly and Mackenzie.”
“How did their lawyer miss this? They should have known they needed to consult us before making such a fundamental change.”
Showdown: Tech Billionaires Page 21