Chapter 2 - IT’S JUST A BIRDPreston was the first to recover.
He put his champagne glass down with deliberate calm.
“This is ridiculous.”
Everett looked at him.
“Which part?”
“The part where we all stand here interrogating a parrot.”
Onyx clicked his beak.
Preston pointed at him.
“He repeats things all day. Half the time they’re from months ago.”
“True.”
“So maybe you heard something that has nothing to do with today.”
Everett leaned slightly on his cane.
“Then why did he say ‘today’?”
“Because he heard it somewhere.”
“Yes.”
Preston paused.
Everett waited.
“That is precisely what concerns me.”
Lorraine came closer and touched Everett’s arm.
“Please sit down.”
He looked at her hand.
She slowly withdrew it.
“I’m fine.”
“I didn’t say you weren’t.”
“You were thinking it.”
Her eyes widened.
“Everett.”
He turned toward the others.
“Which one of you has papers for me to sign?”
Silence.
Celia spoke carefully.
“There are always business papers.”
“Not at my birthday dinner.”
Preston rubbed his forehead.
“Dad, this is what I mean.”
Everett went still.
“What do you mean?”
“You take one strange thing and turn it into ten.”
Lorraine looked at Preston.
“Don’t.”
But he continued.
“You’ve been under pressure for months. You forget meetings. You misplace things. Last week you accused me of moving your portfolio when you’d left it in the study.”
Everett’s face became colder.
“I remember that.”
“Do you?”
The room changed again.
Not because anyone raised their voice.
Because Preston had finally said the thing Everett had feared his family might be thinking.
Old.
Confused.
Unreliable.
Celia stepped closer to her husband.
“He isn’t insulting you.”
Everett looked at her.
“No?”
“He’s worried about you.”
“Are you?”
“Of course.”
Everett studied her expression.
Beautifully controlled.
Appropriately concerned.
Almost rehearsed.
Lorraine said, “Let’s not do this in front of everyone.”
Everett looked around.
The household staff had quietly disappeared into the kitchen.
Only family remained.
“Good idea.”
He crossed to the large table.
“Then let’s do it privately.”
He pulled out a chair.
“Sit.”
Preston stared at him.
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
No one moved.
Everett gave a humorless smile.
“You were all laughing five minutes ago. Surely sitting down shouldn’t be difficult.”
Lorraine sat first.
Celia followed.
Preston remained standing for another moment, then dropped into the chair beside his wife.
Everett did not sit.
He remained at the head of the table.
“Now,” he said. “Let’s make this simple. Does anyone here have a document requiring my signature today?”
Preston glanced at Celia.
It was fast.
Barely a second.
But Everett caught it.
Celia caught Everett catching it.
Her expression changed.
Only slightly.
“There are some continuity documents,” Preston said.
Everett’s fingers tightened around his cane.
“What kind?”
“Routine.”
“What kind?”
“Corporate.”
“Where are they?”
Preston hesitated.
Everett laughed once.
Not warmly.
“You see the problem?”
“There’s no problem.”
“You said there were no papers. Now there are papers.”
“I never said there were no papers.”
“You let me ask the question twice.”
Preston’s face reddened.
“Because I knew you’d react like this.”
“Like what?”
“Suspicious.”
Everett stared at him.
“Someone in this house said they needed to get rid of me before I signed something.”
“That is not what the bird said.”
Everett’s eyes sharpened.
Preston froze.
Celia looked at him.
Lorraine did too.
Everett stepped closer.
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“You remember the wording accurately enough to correct me.”
Preston pushed his chair back.
“Oh, for God’s sake.”
Onyx made a clicking sound.
Celia stood.
“I’m getting you something to drink.”
“No.”
“Everett—”
“No champagne.”
“It might calm everyone down.”
“I don’t need calming down.”
She took a breath.
“Fine.”
As Celia turned away, the edge of her heel caught the linen hanging from the party table.
The cloth shifted.
Something pale dropped from behind the cake stand.
A folder.
Cream-colored.
It hit the floor.
Everyone stared at it.
Celia stopped moving.
Preston closed his eyes briefly.
Everett bent carefully and picked it up.
Across the front were three printed words.
EVERETT HOLLOWAY — SIGNATURES.
He opened it.
The first page was a corporate voting proxy.
The second granted temporary financial authority to Preston.
The third was more complicated.
Everett’s eyes moved slowly across the page.
Then stopped.
His name appeared beside the words:
EXECUTIVE CAPACITY REVIEW.
He looked up.
“No one was going to mention this?”
Preston stood.
“It’s not what you think.”
Everett’s voice dropped.
“You don’t know what I think.”
Lorraine whispered, “Everett…”
He ignored her.
He kept reading.
Several paragraphs referred to the possibility that Everett might become unable to manage his own financial affairs.
There were highlighted signature lines.
His signature lines.
Everything prepared in advance.
Everything waiting beneath his birthday cake.
Everett closed the folder.
Onyx tilted his head.
May you like
And Everett realized the bird had not ruined his birthday.
Someone else had.
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