Chapter 3 - The First Thing He Had to Do
The following morning, Mason found me in the lodge's breakfast room, where I was reviewing a report Daniel had sent overnight. He stood beside the table with a cup of coffee in one hand and his phone in the other, looking less certain than he had the previous evening.
“Do you have a minute?” he asked.
I closed the report. “That depends on what you want to discuss.”
He pulled out the chair opposite me. “The airline. Dad says you're reviewing the partnerships connected to his firm.”
“I am reviewing them. That doesn't mean I've made a decision.”
“His firm has been advising one of the investment groups involved in the acquisition. If the relationship changes, it could affect a lot of people.”
“I understand that.”
“Then you know it's bigger than what happened on the plane.”
I watched him stir his coffee even though he had added nothing to it. Mason had always been comfortable in rooms where other people admired him. He could charm a waiter, impress an executive, and make a joke at someone's expense without appearing to notice when the joke landed badly. He had not been raised to think of himself as cruel. He had simply rarely been required to examine what his comfort cost someone else.
“I'm not reviewing the partnerships because Patricia gave me an economy ticket,” I said. “I'm reviewing them because I have a responsibility to understand the business I'm now controlling.”
“Good. That's good.” He seemed relieved, then continued. “So you'll make sure Dad's firm isn't penalized for something that had nothing to do with business?”
“I'll make sure the business decisions are made for business reasons. I won't promise you an outcome before the review is finished.”
His jaw shifted. “You could at least tell me what you're looking for.”
“Conflicts of interest, undisclosed commitments, performance, and whether the existing arrangements serve the company. The same things I'd look at if I didn't know any of you.”
He leaned back. “You sound exactly like Mom.”
The remark caught me off guard. Mason had not been close to my mother in the final years of her life, partly because he was older than me and partly because Patricia had built a separate household around her own routines. He had been polite at family gatherings, but I could not remember him ever asking what my mother had taught me about the business.
“What do you remember about her?” I asked.
He looked uncomfortable. “She was always asking questions. At dinner, she'd ask Dad why he believed a deal would work, not just how much it would make. I thought she was trying to catch him out.”
“She was trying to understand.”
“Maybe.” He glanced toward the windows. “I didn't appreciate it then.”
It was the closest thing to an honest admission I had heard from him. I could have pressed him about the plane, but I decided to let the silence do some work.
After a moment, he said, “Lauren posted a video from the airport.”
My stomach tightened. “What video?”
“The one where you're carrying the bags. She thought it was funny. People have been commenting on it since last night. She deleted it this morning, but someone saved it.”
I put down my coffee. “Did she know what happened afterward?”
“She was there.”
“Then she knew enough.”
Mason rubbed his forehead. “I told her to take it down. I didn't think it would become such a big thing.”
“Did you laugh when she filmed it?”
He looked at me, then away. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“I don't know. It seemed like a joke. You weren't saying anything, and Patricia was in one of her moods. I figured you'd ignore it.”
I thought about all the years I had ignored things because answering them would have made family gatherings unbearable. My silence had protected the atmosphere in the room, but it had also taught Mason that he could participate in humiliating me without consequence.
“You figured I'd absorb it,” I said.
He did not deny it.
I wasn't interested in forcing an apology out of him. “You can't undo the video. You can decide what you do now. Tell Lauren that deleting it isn't the same as acknowledging what she did. And if anyone asks you about it, don't pretend you weren't involved.”
He looked startled by the simplicity of the request. “You want me to admit I laughed?”
“I want you to tell the truth.”
He finished his coffee and stood. At the doorway, he turned back. “For what it's worth, I didn't know you'd been working on the acquisition. I thought you were having a hard time.”
“I was having a hard time. Those things aren't mutually exclusive.”
He nodded once and left.
Later that afternoon, Daniel called to discuss the review. He explained that my father's firm had a legitimate advisory arrangement with one of the investment partners, but several upcoming decisions required a fresh conflict assessment. Nothing in the initial documents suggested wrongdoing. Still, the firm had relationships with members of my family, and the acquisition would be better served by independent oversight.
“Do you want us to suspend the arrangement while we investigate?” Daniel asked.
“No. We have no evidence that would justify an immediate suspension. Have independent counsel review the terms, document the process, and identify anyone who should recuse themselves from specific decisions.”
“Understood.”
“And don't give my family special treatment. Don't give them harsher treatment, either.”
After the call, I went for a walk with Lauren. She had asked to speak without Mason, and I agreed, though I was not sure what I expected to hear. We followed a path behind the lodge, where patches of old snow remained beneath the trees.
“I deleted the video,” she said. “I know that doesn't fix it.”
“No, it doesn't.”
“I thought you were okay with it because you didn't react.”
“I wasn't okay with it. I was trying to get through the airport without giving Patricia another reason to make a scene.”
Lauren's eyes dropped to the path. “I should have known better. I wanted Mason's family to like me, and Patricia acts as though making you the joke is part of getting along with everyone.”
“Then you have a decision to make about what getting along means.”
She was quiet for several steps. “Mason thinks the whole thing will blow over.”
“Maybe the comments will. That isn't the same as repairing what happened.”
“I don't want to begin my marriage by repeating someone else's family habits.”
It was a more thoughtful answer than I had expected. I told her I appreciated her honesty, but I did not promise that everything was forgiven. She seemed relieved not to be offered an easy absolution.
That evening, Mason came to the small sitting room where I was reading. He had spoken with Lauren, and he had posted a brief message acknowledging that the airport video had been disrespectful. He had not blamed Patricia or suggested that I had misunderstood the joke.
“I should have stopped it,” he said. “I didn't. I'm sorry.”
“Thank you for saying that.”
He waited, perhaps expecting me to make the discomfort disappear. When I didn't, he looked down at his hands.
“I know that doesn't make us close,” he said.
“No. But it gives us somewhere honest to start.”
May you like
He left without asking for anything else. For the first time since the plane, I felt that one person in my family had taken a step that was not designed to protect his reputation.
It was small progress, but it was real. The next test would be whether he could keep doing the right thing when honesty cost him something.
