Chapter 9 - THE BOY WHO KEPT THE CAT
Margot returned to nursing school at twenty-eight.
Older than most classmates.
More tired.
Far less afraid.
Toby's arm healed.
Diesel stayed.
Obviously.
Ruth claimed to hate the cat.
Diesel slept on her bed.
Howerin rebuilt his business slowly.
Not all contracts returned.
Some had legitimately become unprofitable.
For once, the difference was explained on paper.
Ada retired.
For four days.
Then returned three mornings a week because retirement was “full of amateurs.”
Doyle received a reduced sentence after cooperation.
Ruth visited once.
Not to forgive him.
To ask exactly what Elias's last minutes had been.
Doyle told her.
No excuses.
Ruth left.
That was all.
Calder's trial lasted months.
The most damaging witness was not Emmett.
Not Margot.
An insurance auditor.
Boring.
Precise.
Devastating.
Margot liked that.
Truth did not always arrive with guns.
Sometimes it arrived in spreadsheets.
Her father's death was formally reclassified as criminally caused workplace sabotage connected to the fraud scheme.
Samuel Seer's name appeared in newspapers.
Margot clipped one article.
Then stopped reading.
Her father had been more than his death.
She wanted to remember that too.
Emmett's relationship with Margot progressed badly.
Which meant normally.
First date:
He chose a restaurant too expensive.
She complained.
Second:
She chose a diner.
He complained about coffee.
Third:
Toby came because Ruth's sitter failed.
Emmett spent forty minutes discussing harbor cranes with an eight-year-old.
Toby asked:
“Are you mafia?”
Margot nearly died.
Emmett answered:
“My family has made poor career choices.”
Toby nodded.
“Okay.”
Then fed Diesel bacon beneath the table.
Margot discovered Emmett could be patient with children because children were unimpressed by power.
Useful for him.
Their first kiss happened months later.
Not after danger.
Not after rescue.
Outside the nursing building after Margot passed pharmacology.
She was laughing.
Emmett said:
“Can I kiss you?”
She stopped.
A man accustomed to permission being assumed—
asking.
“Yes.”
He kissed her.
Then stepped back first.
Margot smiled.
“Good.”
“What?”
“You listen.”
May you like
“Occasionally.”
“Work on frequency.”
