Chapter 7 - Madison’s Price
Madison chose an empty chapel on the edge of campus.
Sophia almost laughed when she saw the location.
“You?”
Madison sat in the last pew.
“What?”
“A chapel?”
“No cameras.”
“That’s why churches were invented?”
Madison did not smile.
Sophia sat two pews behind her.
Claire’s investigator waited outside.
Richard’s security team remained across the street.
Madison noticed.
“You brought soldiers.”
“I brought witnesses.”
Madison looked down.
“I deserved that.”
Sophia said nothing.
Madison handed her an old phone.
“It’s mine.”
Sophia did not take it.
“What’s on it?”
“Messages.”
“With your father?”
“Yes.”
“Why should I trust anything you give me?”
“You shouldn’t.”
That answer surprised Sophia.
Madison placed the phone on the pew.
“I was horrible to you.”
“You were.”
“I’m not going to pretend my father made me do all of it.”
“Good.”
“I liked humiliating people.”
Sophia watched her.
Madison’s voice became quieter.
“My whole life, my parents taught me there were two kinds of people. People inside rooms and people waiting outside them.”
“That sounds convenient when your family owns the room.”
Madison nodded.
“I thought so too.”
Sophia looked at the phone.
“When did your father tell you who I was?”
“Three months ago.”
Sophia felt anger rise.
“So when you called me trailer trash—”
“I knew.”
“When you told people I probably stole my laptop—”
“I knew.”
“When you poured coffee on my notes—”
Madison closed her eyes.
“I knew.”
Sophia stood.
For the first time since the courtyard, she wanted to hit her.
Madison did not move.
“Do it.”
Sophia stared.
“What?”
“Hit me.”
“No.”
“You want to.”
“Yes.”
“Then why not?”
“Because I don’t want to become you.”
Madison looked as if the sentence hurt more than a slap.
Sophia sat again.
“Why?”
Madison stared toward the altar.
“At first my father just said stay close to you.”
“Close?”
“Watch what you were researching.”
Sophia remembered Madison repeatedly asking about her seminar.
She had assumed it was mockery.
“He wanted information.”
“Yes.”
“And when I started asking about the scholarship?”
“He told me to make sure nobody took you seriously.”
Sophia’s voice became cold.
“So you made me a joke.”
Madison nodded.
“Why did you agree?”
“Because he told me it was temporary.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
Madison looked at her.
“Because I wanted him to respect me.”
The confession seemed to disgust her.
“He respects my brother.”
“You have a brother?”
“Andrew. Thirty-two. Stanford. Private equity. Married the daughter of a senator. The family masterpiece.”
Madison laughed bitterly.
“I’m the entertaining one. The embarrassing one. He gives me money because money is easier than approval.”
Sophia thought of Richard’s security teams and sealed letters.
Different fathers.
Different failures.
“What changed?”
Madison’s face hardened.
“Yesterday I heard him talking to Martin Vale.”
Sophia leaned forward.
“They were arguing.”
“About what?”
“You.”
Madison took the phone.
She opened an audio recording.
Gregory’s voice filled the chapel.
“She reaches twenty-one, she can demand a forensic audit.”
Martin Vale answered.
“Then Pierce needs to finish the conduct case before that.”
Gregory: “And the girl?”
Martin: “Discredit her. Drug allegations if necessary.”
Sophia’s blood went cold.
Madison stopped the recording.
“There’s more.”
“Play it.”
Gregory’s voice returned.
“You told me Madison could handle her.”
Martin laughed.
“Madison can barely handle herself.”
Silence followed.
Then Gregory said something worse.
“She’s useful because nobody expects discipline from her. If this collapses, we say she acted independently.”
Madison stopped the recording.
Her hands shook.
“My father was going to blame me.”
Sophia looked at her.
“And now you want immunity.”
Madison gave a hollow smile.
“I knew you’d think that.”
“Do you?”
“No.”
Sophia waited.
“I want a lawyer.”
“You should get one.”
“I want to cooperate.”
“Then cooperate.”
Madison looked at her.
“I don’t want you to forgive me.”
“I don’t.”
“I know.”
For the first time, Sophia believed her.
Madison handed over the phone.
“There are bank photos too.”
Sophia scrolled.
Statements.
Invoices.
A ledger.
Sophia zoomed in.
Larkspur Consulting.
Haverhill.
Cole Strategic.
But another abbreviation appeared beside several transfers.
BV-SPV7.
“What is that?”
Madison shook her head.
“I don’t know.”
Sophia photographed the screen.
One transaction showed $1.4 million moving from Larkspur through Cole Fiduciary Services to BV-SPV7.
The authorization names were partially visible.
G. COLE.
M. VALE.
And a third person.
R. BEN—
Sophia’s breath stopped.
Madison watched her.
“I didn’t know if I should show you.”
Sophia enlarged the photograph.
The full name was obscured.
But the first initial and surname were clear.
R. BENNETT.
Her father.
Madison whispered, “Sophia.”
Sophia stood.
The chapel suddenly felt airless.
She took the phone.
“Claire needs this.”
“What about Richard?”
Sophia looked toward the chapel doors.
May you like
For the first time since this began, she was afraid to ask her father the truth.
Because the answer might destroy the only alliance Gregory and Martin had not yet broken.
