She also refused a hotel suite, a private doctor, and the envelope of cash he offered after realizing she had no money for transportation.
Lily solved the argument.
“I want him to see our room.”
Mara looked horrified.
“Absolutely not.”
“Why?”
“Because it is private.”
“He has a house with a hundred rooms. He won’t steal ours.”
Adrian almost corrected her. His Boston residence had only seventeen rooms.
He wisely remained silent.
The rain had weakened to a mist. Mara agreed to let him walk with them, though she kept herself between Adrian and Lily whenever the pavement narrowed.
They traveled away from the glowing hotel, past expensive restaurants and dark offices, into streets where windows were protected by metal grilles and laundromats remained open after midnight.
Lily wore hotel slippers provided by a housekeeper.
She carried a paper bag filled with bread, fruit, and the little potatoes she had been unable to finish.
Adrian had spent most of his adult life being recognized.
That night, wrapped in a borrowed overcoat without his driver or security team, he passed unnoticed.
Mara stopped outside an old bakery with a faded blue awning. The shop had closed years earlier, but the upper floor had been divided into rented rooms.
“You live here?” Adrian asked.
“For now.”
They climbed a narrow staircase that smelled of dust and yeast.
Their room contained one bed, a chair, a hot plate, and a sink with a dripping faucet. A blanket had been hung from the ceiling to create a separate sleeping corner for Lily. Books were stacked in milk crates. Architectural drawings filled the wall above Mara’s table.
The drawings were astonishing.
They showed libraries built around old trees, schools cooled by wind channels, apartment courtyards designed to collect rainwater, and shelters in which every family received a small private garden.
Adrian approached one sheet.
“This is better than the Copenhagen proposal we rejected last year.”
“I submitted it under another name.”
He looked at her.
“Why?”
“Because every proposal bearing mine was rejected before review.”
On the wall beside the plans hung a child’s drawing.
Three figures stood inside a glass house. Mara and Lily held hands. A tall man stood beyond the door with his face left blank.
Adrian stared at it.
Lily climbed onto the bed.
“I didn’t know what your nose looked like.”
“My nose?”
“It’s hard to draw noses when you’ve only seen one old picture.”
He touched his face.
“You could have left it out.”
“Then you couldn’t smell dinner.”
Mara placed the food on the table.
“Lily, wash your hands.”
The child carried a plastic bowl to the sink.
Adrian lowered his voice.
“Why did you bring her to the hotel?”
“I didn’t.”
“You were both in the garden.”
“I came alone to meet an investigative reporter. Lily was supposed to stay with a woman at the church.”
“What happened?”
“The woman’s son was taken to the emergency room. Lily followed me onto the bus before I realized she was there.”
“You entered through the service door?”
“I worked on the original building survey. I knew the old passage still existed.”
“And the hospital bracelet?”
“Lily was treated for dehydration this morning.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“She needed a hospital because she didn’t have enough water?”
“She had a stomach infection.”
“Why wasn’t she admitted?”
“Because she improved.”
“Or because you could not pay?”
Mara turned toward him.
“Do not interrogate me in my room.”
“I’m trying to understand.”
“No. You are trying to locate the problem so you can purchase the solution.”
“What would you have me do?”
“Listen without reaching for your wallet.”
He put his hand back into his coat.
She had noticed.
Lily returned and climbed onto the chair.
“Can we eat the bread?”
“You already ate dinner,” Mara said.
“I’m saving dinner inside me for tomorrow.”
Adrian looked away.
Mara divided the bread into three portions.
She gave the largest to Lily, the second to Adrian, and kept the smallest.
“I’m not hungry,” Adrian said.
“Neither am I,” Mara replied.
Lily looked between them.
“You’re both lying.”
Adrian sat.
They ate in silence.
The bread was slightly stale. It was also the first meal in years during which no one asked Adrian about market expansion, hotel occupancy, or investment forecasts.
Afterward, Lily brought him a thin book about a fox that followed the moon home.
“Read it.”
Mara began arranging blankets.
“He may have somewhere to be.”
Adrian’s phone vibrated for the twelfth time.
The board.
The merger team.
Simone.
His chief financial officer.
A message appeared from Marcus Thorne, the vice chairman:
Emergency meeting at 6:30 a.m. Attend or expect a vote without you.
Adrian switched the phone off.
“I can read.”
Lily sat beside him on the bed.