Secrets on the Table

He crossed back to the table. “Talk.”

Elena sat when he pointed at the chair. “I left the estate before dawn.” Her breath caught. She swallowed. “There was a document room off the ballroom. I saw my name on a file. Then yours.”

Aaron said nothing.

“It wasn’t an accident,” she whispered. “What they did to you.”

He stared at her, the old ache in his knuckles waking under the skin.

Elena reached into the waistband of his sweatpants and brought out a silver thumb drive. “I took this too.”

Aaron looked at the drive, then at the men in the alley. The truck keys sat on the counter beside a half-empty can of coffee grounds.

“Stay quiet,” he said.

Outside, one of the coats glanced up toward his window.

The silver drive rattled against the chipped formica table. Elena pulled her hands into the frayed cuffs of Aaron’s flannel shirt, rubbing her bare left ring finger.

“He kept duplicate financial books,” she whispered, her chest hitching. “The real crash logs are inside.”

Aaron leaned both palms on the table. The calluses along his thumbs rasped against the yellowed laminate. On the drive’s brushed metal casing, Hail’s embossed corporate crest caught the pale gray light from the courtyard window.

“He signed the payout that blamed you,” she added.

A small bare foot scuffed against the hallway linoleum.

Mia peeked around the doorframe, pressing her cheek to the wood. In her right hand, she clutched a cloudy plastic tumbler filled with orange juice; between two small fingers of her left, a stubby green crayon.

“Is she still cold, Daddy?” Mia asked.

Elena turned her head slowly, dropping her chin toward her collarbone.

“A little bit,” Elena said.

Mia walked forward on silent toes and set the tumbler beside the silver drive. She placed the green crayon next to the glass, nudging it forward with her fingernail.

“You can color my turtle,” Mia said. “Green makes him happy.”

Elena looked at the wax stub. Her throat worked, but no words came out. She reached out and touched the paper wrapper with one shaking finger.