Chapter 6 - THE SHARES MY HUSBAND NEVER KNEW I COULD OWN
Twenty-four percent.
I kept staring at the number.
Ethan owned eighteen percent.
His mother held eleven.
Lauren six.
Vanessa none—at least currently.
Institutional investors owned the rest.
If I exercised Whitmore's warrants, I would instantly become more powerful inside Apex than my husband.
“This was the secret?” Ethan asked.
“Partly.”
I had known Dad created something before our marriage.
I had not known the exact percentage or trigger language.
He deliberately kept details from me so my marriage wouldn't begin as a corporate negotiation.
I was angry about that too.
Not as angry as forgery.
But enough.
“Do you want the shares?” Dad asked.
Every eye turned toward me.
“No.”
Marcus blinked.
Dad didn't.
He knew me.
I continued:
“I want the right preserved until we know who forged our names.”
Good.
Power did not need to be used simply because it existed.
Then Vanessa called.
Finally.
She sounded frightened.
Not arrogant.
“Claire.”
I almost hung up.
Then remembered Sophie.
“What?”
“I didn't take the folder because of the shares.”
“You hit my daughter.”
Silence.
“I know.”
“You will answer for that separately.”
“Yes.”
No excuses.
Interesting.
Then:
“But Lauren told me Sophie had found documents proving Ethan planned to cut me out permanently.”
“So you slapped a six-year-old?”
Vanessa started crying.
“No explanation makes that acceptable.”
Good.
She knew.
Then she said she took the folder because she recognized Lauren's handwriting.
Vanessa had suspected Lauren for months.
Lauren had pressured her to sign the voting agreement.
Why?
She promised Vanessa public recognition as David Cole's daughter.
Board seat.
Family legitimacy.
Everything Vanessa believed Ethan had received.
“Did you agree?”
“At first.”
There it was.
Then Vanessa discovered Lauren was also moving money through accounts under Vanessa's name.
She tried to back out.
Lauren threatened to release personal messages making Vanessa look like Ethan's mistress.
The rumors had not been accidental.
Lauren cultivated them.
A hidden sibling relationship could be reframed as sexual scandal.
Useful leverage.
Then Vanessa said:
“Claire, Lauren isn't doing this alone.”
“Who?”
“Margaret.”
Ethan's mother.
Again.
Vanessa continued:
“Margaret thinks Ethan is destroying Apex.”
Ethan looked furious.
“Why?”
Because Apex had begun shifting away from defense contracts and toward educational technology.
Lower immediate margins.
Cleaner future.
Margaret hated it.
Lauren agreed.
They wanted Ethan removed.
But one problem remained.
Why forge Whitmore support seven years earlier?
Vanessa answered quietly.
“Because Margaret knew who you were before Ethan did.”
My mother-in-law had researched me before our engagement.
May you like
She knew exactly whose daughter I was.
And according to Vanessa, Margaret encouraged Ethan to marry me.
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