But as I start to pull the past schedules up, my cell rings, BLOCKED coming up on the caller ID. I hold it in my hand, unsure what to do. It could be Owen. But I think of Jake telling me not to answer any unknown numbers, and it feels risky. Who else it may be, what other trouble that may cause.

Bailey motions to my phone. “Are you going to get that? Or just stare at it?”

“Haven’t decided yet.”

What if it’s Owen though? What if? I click accept. But I don’t say anything, waiting to hear what the caller has to say first.

“Hello? Hannah?”

The woman on the other end has a high-pitched voice, lispy, irritating. It’s a voice that I recognize.

“Belle,” I say.

“Oh what a mess this is,” she says. “What an outrage. Are you okay? And how is Owen’s daughter?”

It’s Belle’s attempt to be nice, but I note that she doesn’t say Bailey. She says Owen’s daughter because she can never remember Bailey’s name. It’s never been important to her to learn it.

“They didn’t do this thing, you know…” she says.

They.

“Belle, I’ve been trying to reach you,” I say.

“I know, I know, you must be beside yourself. I’m beside myself. I’m holed up in St. Helena like some kind of common criminal. Camera crews camped outside my door. I can’t even leave the house! I had to have my assistant drop off roasted chicken and chocolate soufflés from Bouchon so I’d have something to eat,” she says. “Where are you?”

I start to sidestep the question, but I don’t need to. Belle isn’t waiting for my answer. She just wants to keep talking.

“I mean this whole thing is just ridiculous,” she says. “Avett is an entrepreneur, not a criminal. And Owen’s a genius, though I don’t need to tell you that. I mean, for crying out loud, why the hell would Avett need to do this thing anyway? Steal from his own company? This is, what, his eighth start-up? This late in his career he is going to start inflating values and lying and stealing? Or whatever the hell they say he is doing? Give me a break. We already have more money than we know what to do with.”

She is fighting hard, arguing forcefully. But it doesn’t change what she is leaving out, what she is refusing to acknowledge. Avett’s previous success, the hubris that comes with it, could explain why he refused to fail now.

“Point is, it’s a setup,” she says.

“By who, Belle?”