Chapter 3 — Page One

David took a thick manila folder out of the case and pushed it. It slid the length of the polished table and came to a stop against his father's wine glass.

RobertWhat is this.

DavidPage one.

Robert did not open it.

RobertDavid. What is this.

DavidOpen it.

Robert opened the folder and read the first page, and the room watched his face change by degrees, the way a wall changes colour when the light goes.

PrestonDad? What is it?

RobertWhere did you get this.

DavidI bought it.

RobertYou bought — this is a share transfer.

DavidSixty-one percent.

MargaretSixty-one percent of what?

RobertOf Ashcroft Holdings.

MargaretThat's not possible. Robert, tell him that's not possible.

RobertWhen.

DavidThe first tranche in March. The last in August.

RobertPreston's shares.

DavidTwelve percent. He came to me in April. He needed it.

PrestonYou said that was confidential.

DavidIt stopped being confidential when Mother put a plate on the floor.

RobertAunt Diane's eight.

DavidAnd Uncle Gerald's nine. And the eleven held by the pension trust, which was the expensive part, and took until August.

RobertAnd the rest.

DavidTwenty-one from you, in 2021, when you gave me the block and told me it was symbolic.

RobertIt was symbolic.

DavidYou put it in writing, Dad. It was shares.