"We make a copy," Marcus said. "Tonight, right now, the recording, the folder, all of it. We make three copies. One goes to your lawyer, the one who hates you. One goes in the mail to a reporter sealed held.
And one stays hidden somewhere only you and I know. " Because the one thing Adrienne's whole plan depends on is that there's only one copy and it's in a box he can get to. The second there's three copies in three places his leverage is gone. You can't threaten a man over a secret that's already been backed up. Victoria stared at him. That's it.
That's the whole plan. That's the whole plan. That's a good plan. She said slowly. Marcus, that's a genuinely good plan.
Why didn't I think of that? Because you've spent two weeks running, Marcus said. And you can't think when you're running. I told you that this morning. You give the fear a task.
He was already pulling his laptop out of the cabinet, an old scarred thing held together with a contractor's faith in duct tape. You had the proof the whole time. You just never had a minute to stand still and be smart with it. So, tonight we stand still. It was a little after 4 when they started copying files.
And it was maybe 20 minutes in with the recorder plugged into the laptop and the audio file crawling across a progress bar that Marcus' phone buzzed with a text from Calvin. Marcus looked at it for a long moment before he opened it. Hey man, no it's short notice, but something came up. Can I come by tonight real quick? Got to talk to you about something serious.
Won't take long. 8:00 p. M. Victoria read it over his shoulder and went cold. He's coming here, she said.
Tonight at 8. No, he's not. Marcus set the phone down. Because I'm not going to answer that and my daughter's going to be gone by 9:00. And by the time he gives up waiting for a reply, we'll have three copies in three places, and none of this will matter.
But Victoria was shaking her head slow and there was a look on her face that Marcus had learned to pay attention to. "You don't understand how he works," she said. "How they work? " Adrien doesn't send a text like this because Calvin wants to talk. Adrien sends a text like this to find out if you're home. It's a probe, Marcus.
If you say yes, he knows you're here at 8 and he sends Calvin or worse. If you say no, he knows you're not. And he sends somebody to search the house while it's empty. And if you don't answer at all, she swallowed. If you don't answer at all, that's the most suspicious thing you can do because you've answered every Saturday for 6 years.
Silence tells him, you know, silence tells him you've turned. Marcus stared at the phone. So, what do I do? You answer it, Victoria said. You answer it the way you answered the phone this morning.
Loose, bored, ordinary. You tell him, "You can't do tonight kids coming home, but let's still do lunch Monday, and you make it so completely normal that he reports back to Adrien that you don't suspect a thing. " She met his eyes. You buy us the night and we use every minute of it to make those copies and get them out of this house so that by tomorrow morning when they figure out you played them, it's already too late. Marcus picked the phone up. He typed slow in Calvin's own rhythm.
The easy, careless texting of a man with nothing to hide. Can't do tonight, man. Ava's coming home family stuff. But yeah, we got to talk. Let's still do that lunch Monday.
Everything okay? You good? He hits send. The three dots came up almost immediately, then went away, then came up again. Whoever was on the other end was thinking about how to answer.
And Marcus knew, watching those dots, that it wasn't just Calvin over there. Somebody was reading over Calvin's shoulder. Somebody was telling him what to type. The reply came, "All good, boss. Family first.
Monday works. Tell Ava. " Uncle Cal says hey. Marcus put the phone face down on the table and did not say anything for a long moment and Victoria did not rush him because she understood that tell Ava. Uncle Cal says hey had just cut something out of the man that would not grow back. Okay, Marcus said finally and his voice was flat and level and done.
Now we work fast. They worked fast. It was 5:00 and then it was 5:30 and the files were copying and Victoria was on the phone in the other room with the lawyer who hated her and Marcus could hear her voice through the wall. Could hear her doing the hardest thing he'd watched her do all day, which was apologize. Because I was wrong about you, Diane, Victoria was saying, "That's why I'm calling.
Not because I need you. Well, yes, because I need you. I'm not going to insult you by pretending otherwise, but also because I was wrong. Eight years ago, I cut you out of the Rgeline deal to save myself two points. And I told myself you were expendable and I was the smart one.
And you know what? You were the better lawyer. You were always the better lawyer. And I've had 8 years to know it. And I never said it and I'm saying it now.
A pause. No, don't hang up, please. Just 30 seconds. I have a recording of Adrien Cole confessing to fraud on the South Connector Bridge, the one that dropped. Four people.
And I have documents. And I have a man's whole company being stolen out from under him at the same time by the same people. And I have his 9-year-old daughter that they put in a threatening phone call this morning. And I need the meanest, most incorruptible lawyer in the state of Georgia. And I have spent 8 years being angry at you precisely because you are that person.
So, do you want to beat me Diane or do you want to win with me? Because tonight for once those are the same thing. There was a very long silence. Marcus stopped typing so he could hear and then faint through the wall he heard Victoria let out a breath she'd been holding for 8 years. "Thank you," she said.
"2 hours. We'll have it to your office in 2 hours, Diane. " a pause. Diane, thank you. Truly. She came back into the kitchen looking 10 lb lighter and 20 years younger.