Chapter 6 - The One Thing Money Couldn’t Fix
Nora did not speak to Silas for nineteen days.
During those nineteen days, her life changed completely.
Federal prosecutors publicly cleared Thomas Hayes of wrongdoing.
The original NorthStar accusations were formally withdrawn.
News outlets that had once printed his photograph beside words like fraud and corruption now described him as the whistleblower who had uncovered one of Illinois’s largest financial conspiracies.
Nora should have felt vindicated.
Mostly she felt tired.
Thomas improved.
Slowly.
His doctors believed reduced stress and intensive therapy might restore limited speech.
On day eleven, he managed one clear word.
“Nora.”
She cried for twenty minutes.
On day fourteen, Le Triomphe’s manager offered her job back.
Nora stared at him.
“You fired me.”
“I was under pressure.”
“You fired me by text.”
He looked embarrassed.
“We’d like to correct that.”
“No.”
Walking away felt wonderful.
On day seventeen, a major Chicago forensic firm offered Nora a senior position.
She declined that too.
Not because she wanted to remain a waitress.
Because she had spent two years allowing other people’s decisions to define her worth.
She wanted something of her own.
Meanwhile, Silas Mercer discovered that money was useless against silence.
He sent no flowers.
Nora would have returned them.
He sent no jewelry.
She would have hated it.
He did not appear outside her apartment.
That surprised her.
Instead, he respected the boundary.
Which irritated her even more.
On day nineteen, Thomas asked for him.
Nora stared at her father.
“No.”
Thomas slowly repeated:
“Silas.”
“You’re supposed to be recovering, not interfering in my personal life.”
Her father almost smiled.
An hour later, Silas entered.
He looked different without the restaurant lighting and expensive social armor.
Tired.
Thomas motioned for Nora to remain.
Silas sat.
Thomas struggled to speak.
“You… came.”
Silas leaned forward.
“That night?”
Thomas nodded.
“I was late.”
Thomas shook his head.
Then forced out:
“You… called.”
Silas frowned.
Thomas pointed toward Nora’s laptop.
They found archived phone records.
At 10:41 p.m. on the night before Thomas’s stroke, Silas had called him.
The call lasted thirty-seven seconds.
Silas remembered.
“I warned him someone inside Mercer Logistics had leaked the meeting.”
Thomas nodded.
Nora stared.
“You warned Dad?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because the warning failed.”
“That isn’t an answer.”
Silas looked at her.
“Because I spent four years believing if I had arrived earlier, your father might never have been attacked.”
Nora’s anger faltered.
Thomas tapped the bedrail.
“No.”
Silas looked toward him.
Thomas struggled.
“You… saved…”
His breathing became difficult.
Nora leaned closer.
Thomas finished.
“Me.”
The room went silent.
Thomas explained slowly.
Silas’s warning made him leave his office early.
The men sent to attack him arrived after he was gone.
Thomas suffered his stroke later from stress while trying to move evidence.
Silas had not caused it.
He may have prevented something worse.
Nora looked at him.
“You carried that for four years?”
Silas shrugged slightly.
“I’m not particularly talented at healthy emotional processing.”
Nora laughed before she could stop herself.
Silas smiled.
Thomas looked between them.
Then said another exhausting word.
“Coffee.”
Nora frowned.
“You want coffee?”
Thomas shook his head.
He pointed at both of them.
Then toward the door.
Nora understood.
“You’re kicking us out?”
Thomas smiled.
Outside, Nora and Silas walked to a coffee shop.
No guards sat beside them.
No manifests.
No threats.
Just two people at a small table.
“I’m sorry,” Silas said.
“For what?”
“Not telling you immediately.”
She waited.
“No justification?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Silas looked into his coffee.
“My marriage to Victoria is being annulled.”
Nora looked up.
“Annulled?”
“The federal investigation uncovered fraudulent representations surrounding the marriage agreement. My attorneys believe—”
“Silas.”
“Yes?”
“You sound like a contract.”
“I’m nervous.”
Nora stared.
Silas Mercer.
Nervous.
She almost enjoyed this too much.
“Why?”
“Because there is something I want that cannot be acquired.”
Her heart accelerated.
“What?”
“You.”
Silence.
Silas immediately corrected himself.
“That sounded considerably more possessive than intended.”
Nora laughed.
He closed his eyes.
“I’m terrible at this.”
“You really are.”
He looked at her.
“I don’t want you because you embarrassed Victoria.”
“Encouraging.”
“I don’t want you because you found the fraud.”
“Better.”
“I want you because when everyone else in my world sees power, you see accountability.”
Nora became quiet.
“And because you’re the only person I know who can insult someone using French pastry.”
She smiled.
Silas reached across the table.
He did not touch her.
He simply placed his hand there.
Waiting.
Nora looked at it.
Then placed hers over his.
Not forgiveness.
Not yet.
But possibility.
Then her phone rang.
Thomas’s facility.
Nora answered.
Her face changed.
Silas stood.
“What?”
May you like
Nora whispered:
“My father is missing.”
