Chapter 4 - THE SUCCESSION VOTE
I had thought Vanessa was about desire.
I had thought Adrian’s cruelty came from arrogance.
I had thought Margaret disliked me because she considered me socially inferior.
Now I understood something far uglier.
They were afraid of me.
Richard walked toward the fireplace.
“The board has been concerned about Adrian for more than a year.”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“Say what you mean.”
Richard turned.
“Your judgment.”
“My judgment?”
“Your expenses. Your missed meetings. The Phoenix project. The subcontractor dispute.”
“That was handled.”
“By Elena.”
Everyone looked at me.
I frowned.
“I reviewed one contract.”
Richard nodded.
“And found a seven-million-dollar exposure our legal department missed.”
Luca muttered:
“I remember.”
Richard continued.
“You advised us twice after that. Quietly. You never asked for compensation. You never tried to embarrass anyone.”
Adrian stared at me.
“You were advising my father behind my back?”
“He asked me questions.”
“You should have told me.”
“Would you have listened?”
His silence answered.
Richard said:
“When I told the board I planned to step back, they wanted an interim chair without internal alliances.”
Margaret laughed.
“An outsider.”
“No. Family.”
I almost corrected him.
Then I saw his face.
Richard had genuinely considered me family.
Maybe not always.
But enough.
“The vote wasn’t final,” he continued. “We planned to approach Elena after tonight.”
My birthday.
The party had not merely been social.
Richard had intended to speak with me.
Adrian knew.
Margaret knew.
And Vanessa knew.
I looked at my husband.
“When did you find out?”
He said nothing.
“When?”
“Six weeks ago.”
Eight months of affair.
Six weeks of panic.
That distinction mattered.
“You were already sleeping with Vanessa.”
“Yes.”
“But the financial scheme accelerated after you learned about the succession.”
Adrian looked toward Gabriel’s screen.
I knew the answer.
Margaret spoke instead.
“Elena had no right to take what belongs to Adrian.”
“Take?” I asked. “I didn’t even know.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“It matters quite a lot.”
“You always do this.”
“What?”
“That calm little voice. Acting as though you’re above everyone.”
I stared at her.
For ten years, I had tried to win Margaret.
Christmas gifts.
Hospital visits.
Birthday lunches.
Smiling through insults because Adrian always said, She’s just old-fashioned.
Now I finally stopped trying.
“You hated me before you had a reason.”
“No.”
“Then what was the reason?”
Her mouth tightened.
Richard spoke quietly.
“Her father.”
Dominic looked up.
My brothers became still.
I turned toward Richard.
“What about my father?”
Margaret snapped:
“Don’t.”
Richard ignored her.
“Your father and I weren’t simply business acquaintances.”
Dominic’s expression changed.
“What are you saying?”
Richard looked at all six Moretti siblings.
“Your father saved Cole Dominion.”
We already knew about the guarantee.
But Richard continued.
“Not just financially.”
Twenty-two years earlier, Cole Dominion had nearly collapsed after one of its founding partners stole from pension accounts linked to several projects.
The scandal could have ended the company.
Our father, Antonio Moretti, discovered the theft through a logistics contract.
Instead of exploiting it, he brought the evidence privately to Richard.
“He gave me forty-eight hours to report it myself,” Richard said.
Matteo smiled faintly.
“That sounds like Dad.”
Richard nodded.
“He also lent the company enough liquidity to survive the investigation.”
Margaret’s face hardened.
“And never let us forget it.”
Dominic looked at her.
“Our father never mentioned it to us.”
She had no answer.
Richard continued.
“When Antonio died, I promised myself I would repay what he did for this family.”
My throat tightened.
“So nominating me was repayment?”
“No.”
He shook his head.
“That’s why I first looked at you.”
Then:
“What I found was someone more qualified than my son.”
Adrian flinched as if struck.
For one second, I felt sorry for him.
Then I remembered the bedroom receipts.
The forged vendor invoices.
The public humiliation.
Choices mattered more than wounds.
Nico’s phone vibrated.
He looked down.
His expression changed immediately.
“What?”
He walked toward Luca and showed him the screen.
Luca swore under his breath.
Adrian saw.
“What is it?”
Nico looked at me.
“We set monitoring alerts on several entities connected to Vanessa.”
My stomach tightened.
“And?”
“Thirty-six minutes ago, someone initiated a $4.2 million transfer from Crown Meridian.”
Vanessa went pale.
Richard stared.
“To where?”
Nico’s eyes stayed on the screen.
“Cayman Islands.”
Gabriel asked:
“Whose authorization?”
Nico looked toward Adrian.
“His.”
Adrian shouted:
“I didn’t do that!”
This time, I believed him.
Because Adrian’s phone was sitting on the table.
May you like
And while we had all been inside the ballroom…
someone else had just started moving the money.
