At eight thirty, Dave arrived at the hospital.He had already been responsible for the emergency board communication from the office, and had taken three investor calls that had been called into his attention, and drove to the hospital when the building was able to operate without him for the evening.He found Robert in the hall outside Roxanne's room.When he came around the corner, Robert looked at him.Dave glanced at Robert's face.He stopped walking.He had seen this face in many of Robert's forms for eighteen years. The professional version. The composed version. The one that came when it was hard when things were at their worst. The one after Clara's birth when there was a fundamental change in him.This was a new version for Dave.Not the overwhelmingness of Clara's birth. Something quieter than that. Something which had come to rest instead of landing. A man who has possessed something that transforms his understanding about what he was guarding and is now situated in a corri

Phillip found the timeline discrepancy on a Wednesday afternoon.He was still going through the storage box. His lawyer had asked for the cataloguing to be done and it had been going on for weeks. Systematic. He spent one day on each folder. He was disciplined on it, Until Wednesday, he had found something significant.The folder was not as thick as most. Eight pages. Corporate financial records pertaining to financial activity associated with Maxime. He had previously noticed such folders in the box, and had catalogued and turned them over to his lawyer without special notice.This one was not the same.There was one new transaction record on page four. A payment from one entity to another medical practice. The time was defined. It was a small sum. In a similar fashion to the way some sensitive transactions were redacted in these financial records, the reference code on the transaction was partially redacted.He glanced at the date.He was gazing at it for a long time.Then he went t

An anonymous message was sent on Monday morning.Robert was at his office. Outside was a grey December morning as the city did its business. Clara was dropped off at Sandra's for the day. Roxanne felt at ease with Pius. Robert came in at the board communication which lasted four hours and he had decided that it was the right amount of time away from the penthouse at the time.His phone rang at nine forty.An unknown number.He looked at it.He opened it.There was an image inside. Two pages of financial records shown in a photo. He looked at them. Transaction records. Private practice in medicine. Two payments over a four week period. A date.He read the date.He read the reference code.He placed the phone face down on the desk.He sat for a while.He picked it up again.He studied the records more closely. About the information that was contained in them, and the information that was not contained in them. They were partial. Two pages of a larger document, which appears to be a pape

Phillip was given the information on a Friday morning.His outside contact had located what Leonard wanted. History of the medical practice's registration. Specific details to either confirm or refute the implication of the payment records.The contact forwarded it as before. Daily legal business correspondence on the surface. Specific and meaningful underneath.Phillip sat at his desk and read it.He read it three times over.During the two payments the practice was registered under a different name. During that time the name it was known by was attached to a medical network specializing in a specific category of reproductive care. Not the type Carver had mentioned. A different one.Phillip checked the details of the registration.He pondered on what this meant.Follow-up care was recommended over four weeks, based on the payment records. During that time the practice's specialization indicated that the follow-up care was not for a completed pregnancy. The specialization was to a par

That evening, Dave called Robert at ten fifteen.Robert was in the living room. Roxanne was standing next to him. Clara was asleep. Pius was in his room. The penthouse was particularly still, as night was beginning to fall, when the phone rang.Robert gazed at the screen. Dave. He answered.“Can I come over tonight? Now." Dave said.Robert looked at Roxanne.She read his face."Come," Robert said.It took Dave fourteen minutes to arrive. With his phone in hand and the face he always wears when something is urgent and he's been driving all day to figure out how to present it, he walked through the door.He sat opposite to both of them.He didn't work toward it.“Maxime got a fake medical record tonight.” Dave said. “Anonymous message. Unknown number. His name on a document associating him with a private medical practice at the time when Pius was conceived.” He set his phone on the table between them. “The document is meant to create a certain narrative, somebody made it that way to mak