I didn't tell Nathaniel about the choice forming in my head. I simply excused myself from the office, told Diane's assistant I needed air, and called the private security firm directly, my voice steadier than I felt.
"I need eyes on my father right now," I said. "Not in an hour. Now."
The dispatcher's calm, procedural tone did nothing to slow the panic clawing up my throat while I waited, phone pressed hard against my ear, pacing the length of a hallway lined with framed photographs of a company Douglas had spent sixty years building, none of which meant anything to me in that moment compared to the silence on the other end of the line.
The guard reached my father's apartment within twelve minutes, and the relief that flooded through me when he confirmed my father was safely inside, una
