Chapter 25 - Leonard apologizes
Leonard Shaw met me two and a half years after the kitchen.
Public conference room.
Lawyers present.
My threat call had made private meetings permanently stupid.
He was older.
Smaller somehow.
His law license had been suspended for eighteen months after disciplinary findings involving conflict management and misleading communications.
He said:
“I should have told you.”
“Yes.”
“I believed your father.”
“So did everyone.”
“He thought another child could be used against you.”
“Did you?”
“Yes.”
There.
“Did Hannah ever threaten the family?”
“No.”
“Demand money?”
“No.”
“Then what was the threat?”
Leonard looked at me.
“Her existence.”
Exactly.
Vincent Carter had not been protecting me from Hannah.
He had been protecting a structure from complexity.
One wife.
One son.
One heir.
Clean public succession.
My father could manage crime, enemies, investigations.
He could not tolerate family facts he had not planned.
Leonard said:
“I told myself the payments gave Eliza stability.”
“They did.”
That surprised him.
“They also took away her father.”
“Yes.”
Both.
No fake simplicity.
He apologized.
I accepted the words.
May you like
Did not restore him as lawyer.
Forgiveness is not rehiring.
