Chapter 10 - THE MAN WHO WANTED BOTH SIDES TO LOSE
Daniel Cross had spent a year engineering collapse.
Grant’s affair.
Savannah’s blackmail.
The unauthorized payments.
Joanne’s fear.
The trust dispute.
Every crisis made Grant weaker.
Every secret made Daniel more necessary.
Rebecca mapped it out on a conference-room wall.
“He encouraged Grant to pay Savannah from company funds.”
Grant nodded grimly.
“He said it was cleaner.”
“He advised Joanne to support the October eighteenth wedding date.”
Joanne confirmed it.
“He said remarriage would stabilize the board.”
Rebecca continued.
“He helped Savannah file the paternity acknowledgment.”
“And slept with her,” I added.
Nobody needed to say more.
Daniel wanted Grant discredited before the trust vested.
If I took temporary voting control, the board would panic.
Daniel expected them to choose an experienced Cross executive as operational head.
Him.
“What did Savannah get?”
I asked.
Grant answered.
“A promise.”
“What promise?”
“If Daniel became CEO, he would create a trust for their baby.”
Savannah had not been marrying Grant for love.
Maybe she had cared once.
But by the end, she was participating in a corporate takeover.
I should have felt vindicated.
Instead, I felt tired.
Then Daniel disappeared.
His office had been cleared.
Company servers wiped.
Grant’s private financial archive copied.
Federal investigators froze accounts.
Cross Industries stock dropped nineteen percent in one day.
Thousands of employees panicked.
And suddenly the trust clause I had resented became important.
I had voting control.
Not yet final.
But enough under emergency provisions to stabilize the board.
Rebecca looked at me.
“You need to decide whether to invoke it.”
I laughed.
“I’m a pediatric occupational therapist.”
“You’re also the named emergency controlling trustee.”
“I don’t know how to run a manufacturing company.”
“You don’t have to.”
Grant spoke for the first time.
“She appoints someone who does.”
Everyone looked at him.
He continued.
“Claire controls governance. Management can remain professional.”
That was correct.
I hated that he was correct.
I invoked the clause.
Not to punish Grant.
To stop Daniel from selling divisions before he disappeared completely.
The board meeting was brutal.
Men twice my age talked over me.
I let them.
For exactly four minutes.
Then I said:
“Anyone who thinks I’m here to play CEO can leave. I’m here to make sure nobody steals eighteen thousand people’s livelihoods while the Cross family cleans up its personal disasters.”
Silence.
Good.
We appointed an interim CEO from outside the family.
Independent audit.
Employee protections.
No asset sales without board approval.
Grant voluntarily stepped back.
That surprised everyone.
Then my phone vibrated during the meeting.
Unknown number.
Daniel.
A photograph loaded.
Savannah sitting in a chair.
Hands tied.
Pregnant stomach visible.
The message:
SHE KNOWS WHERE THE ORIGINAL WILLIAM CROSS FILE IS.
BRING CLAIRE ALONE.
My blood chilled.
Grant saw my face.
“What?”
I showed him.
His expression changed.
Savannah had helped destroy my marriage.
But she was still a pregnant woman in danger.
May you like
I stood.
“We’re getting her out.”
