Chapter 10 - THE OTHER PHONE
The phone was an old Mercer-issued device.
Solomon had been allowed to keep it after employment because the hardware was due for disposal once company data was wiped.
He repurposed it on Wi-Fi for job searching.
Why hide it?
Because his main phone was on the family plan.
Audrey could see:
billing,
not message content,
but call history.
He did not want recruiter calls raising questions.
Again.
Secrecy designed to delay a conversation.
Audrey requested access through counsel only after Solomon agreed.
The second phone contained recruiters, career coaches, and former coworkers.
Then one message thread stood out.
Contact:
DAVID KLINE.
Former Mercer vice president.
David had encouraged Solomon to apply at Hartwell.
He also advised:
Do not tell your wife until you have leverage. Families say no to uncertainty and yes to completed plans.
Audrey stared.
Solomon replied:
Exactly.
David continued:
Get the package signed. Get the move in motion. Then it becomes a choice between joining you and breaking the family.
Audrey felt sick.
That was not legal strategy.
It was social coercion.
Solomon had not invented the method alone.
He had adopted advice that told him momentum could substitute for consent.
She asked if David had any financial interest.
No.
No referral bonus.
No secret payment.
He was simply an older executive giving terrible personal advice.
Solomon had admired him.
Then Audrey found a later text.
Solomon wrote:
Theo saw the folder. I scared him. I think I crossed a line.
Time:
twenty minutes before Audrey arrived home.
David replied:
Then fix it now. Tell Audrey before the kid does.
Solomon had received an exit ramp.
He did not take it.
Instead he threatened Theo again.
That mattered.
Stress had not erased choice.
Then another message appeared.
Sent the morning after the incident.
Solomon:
I think Audrey is done with me.
David:
Maybe she should be.
Audrey sat back.
Even the man who encouraged the secrecy recognized where it ended.
Then Solomon disclosed one more thing.
He had recorded a voice memo immediately after Audrey took Theo away.
Not for court.
For himself.
Audrey asked to hear it.
In the recording, Solomon sounded broken.
“I hit my son because he saw a suitcase. I keep telling myself I was protecting the family. I think I was protecting the lie.”
Audrey listened once.
No more.
Then, at the end, Solomon said:
“There’s still something Audrey doesn’t know about Mercer.”
Audrey turned to him.
“What?”
He closed his eyes.
“The management review was reopened after I left.”
“Why?”
“Because they found the same reporting issue in two other regions.”
Audrey frowned.
“So?”
“So I may not have been the only problem.”
Then he said:
“Mercer offered me something last week.”
May you like
A reinstatement interview.
In Ohio.
