“Caldwell Mercer Development.”
I thought I had misheard him.
“Mercer?”
“Yes.”
“My father never owned a development company.”
“He did.”
The certainty in Richard’s voice unsettled me.
“He owned half of one.”
I searched my memory.
My father had talked about college, his first engineering job, the tiny apartment where he and my mother had lived after they married.
He had told stories about impossible supervisors, badly designed bridges, frozen pipes, camping trips, tax mistakes, broken cars.
Never once had he mentioned owning a company with Richard Caldwell.
“What happened?”
Richard hesitated.
“We disagreed.”
“About what?”
“A project.”
“What project?”
His gaze moved toward the houses surrounding the fundraiser tent.
For the first time, I noticed exactly where he was looking.
Larksburg Court.
Our street.
“No,” I said.
Richard nodded once.
“This neighborhood.”
I stared at him.
“You’re telling me my father helped develop Larksburg Court?”
“He designed the original plan.”
I almost laughed.
It sounded absurd.
I had bought my house six weeks earlier because I wanted something quiet after years of moving from posting to posting. I had chosen Larksburg Court because of the mature trees, the sidewalks, the odd little central park, and the fact that every backyard had enough space to breathe.
My father had been dead seven years.
And now Richard Caldwell was telling me he had designed the place where I had somehow ended up living.
“That’s impossible.”
“No.”
“I found this house online.”
“I believe you.”
“I didn’t know anything about this neighborhood.”
“I believe that too.”
“Then why didn’t you say something when I moved in?”
Richard looked ashamed.
“Because I didn’t know what your father told you about me.”
“Apparently nothing.”
“Yes.”
The answer was almost a whisper.
Before I could ask another question, Ethan appeared beside us.
“What did Daniel tell her?”
Richard went still.
Ethan looked between us.
“Who’s Daniel?”
Neither of us answered quickly enough.
Ethan’s expression changed.
“Dad?”
Richard exhaled.
“Daniel Mercer was Victoria’s father.”
“So?”
“He and I knew each other.”
Ethan waited.
Richard seemed to age in front of us.
Finally he said, “He was my first business partner.”
Ethan stared at him.
