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Kate drank her champagne, wondering if he really meant what he was saying.

“Can I buy you dinner, Kate? There’s a great restaurant downstairs.”

She accepted, and they started across the rooftop. He was walking slowly, controlling their pace, as if he needed to get something else off his chest before dinner. “I suppose by now you’ve seen today’s press conference.”

“I watched it live,” she said.

He stopped. “I’m sorry, Kate. On top of the loss of your mother, now this nonsense has reared its ugly head again.”

“Why do you think it’s come up?”

“I don’t know. But Jeremy Peel has already claimed dibs on my job. He wants to be both CEO and board chair, which would be a disaster. I need to get to the bottom of this—and quick.”

“Is that why you asked the U.S. attorney to have Noah lead the cybersecurity audit?”

She’d genuinely caught him off guard. “How’d you hear that?”

“Noah told me. He wanted me to hear it from him. I would have liked to have heard it from you.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t want you in the middle of this.”

Such a lame explanation from such a smart man was exasperating. “You asked the U.S. attorney to put Noah in charge of the audit. How is thatnotputting me in the middle?”

He was appropriately contrite. “Guilty as charged.”

“Dad, what are you really thinking?”

“Here’s the deal. You know and I know your mother got all worked up about something that never happened.”

Kate didn’t disagree, though in truth, she was only ninety-nine percent sure that “nothing had ever happened” between her father and Sandra Levy. “Mom admitted everything to me the next morning.”

“What did she admit, exactly?”

“I’ve told you this before.”

“I know, and I’m sorry to bring this up, but it’s important.”

“Mom had it in her mind that there was something going on between you and Sandra Levy. She got drunk and called nine-one-one to get even.”

“You and Noah were dating when your mother made that revenge call.”

“So?”

“By any chance did you tell him about the conversation you had with your mother?”

“No,” she said firmly. “That was between Mom and me.”

He glanced toward his bodyguard, as if to make sure that not even he was close enough to hear what he was about to ask. “Would you?”

“Would I what?”

“Tell Noah.”

“Do you mean now?”

“Yes. It comes across as self-serving for me to explain it. Coming from you, it rings true.”

Kate was getting annoyed. “So you want me to throw Mom’s memory under the bus because this audit has you in a jam.”