It fell out in the kitchen. I read it. A pause. I hope that's all right. He closed his eyes for a second.
Is it all right with you that she wrote it? She said, "I was very smart," Olivia said, and her voice was something he had never heard from her before. Genuinely simply moved. She said, "I need to learn from burning things," she said. A pause.
He heard something that might have been her composing herself. She's 8 years old. Marcus, I know. How is she that she stopped? She had Diane, he said.
And then she had me trying to be both of us at once. Children who are loved like that, they turn out a certain way. Quiet. I put the note on my desk, Olivia said. At the office, I moved it there this morning.
Arcus was quiet for a long moment. Okay, he said softly. Okay, she said. They hung up and Marcus sat in his kitchen under the flickering fluorescent light and told himself nothing about what any of it meant and failed completely. The next morning, Marcus walked into the job site to find a car he didn't recognize parked by the gate.
A man he didn't recognize standing next to it somewhere in his mid-40s. Expensive watch. The particular casual posture of someone who is comfortable because they believe they have leverage. Marcus Carter, the man said. Who's asking?
Marcus said he didn't slow down. Paul Renick, I'm on the board of Bennett Global Holdings. He paused, clearly expecting this to produce a visible effect. It didn't. I'd like to talk to you about the investment offer Richard Bennett made to your company.
Marcus stopped. He turned and looked at Paul Renick with a steady, direct, unhurried attention that made Renick shift his weight slightly. "How do you know about that offer?" Marcus said. "I make it my business to know things that affect the company," Renick said smoothly. "Peicularly when those things involve the company's founder making financial decisions that may reflect." Marcus said his voice was quiet, not aggressive, just utterly unmovable.
Richard Bennett is a private individual who made a private business decision with his own money. That decision has nothing to do with Bennett Global Holdings. You know that and I know that. The optics the optics are your problem, not mine. Marcus said, "I'm a contractor.
I do restoration work. I have been hired to restore this property and that is the extent of my professional relationship with this family." Renick looked at him recalibrating it. He'd expected something different. Intimidation maybe or defensiveness. If you go forward with the investment, Renick said it will be used in the board meeting against Olivia, then use it, Marcus said.
And his voice was so level that Renick blinked. Whatever Richard Bennett does with his personal money is his business. Whatever Olivia does with hers is hers. Neither of them needs me to make their decisions. And they certainly don't need me to make decisions based on what someone else threatens.