Chapter 4 - THE GROOM WHO FINALLY STARTED ASKING QUESTIONS
Marcus looked from Elena to Dante.
“What is Victor hiding?”
Elena almost laughed.
Three months ago, she would have given anything for Marcus to look at her with that much concern.
Now it irritated her.
“This is not your business.”
“Vivien is my wife.”
“Congratulations.”
His jaw tightened.
Dante watched silently.
Marcus stepped closer.
“Victor’s company is one of my firm’s largest clients.”
That changed things.
Dante’s eyes sharpened.
“What kind of work?”
“Investment restructuring.”
Marcus hesitated.
“Real-estate funds. Development partnerships.”
Dante asked:
“Did your firm handle Laurent Urban Renewal Six?”
Marcus went pale.
Elena noticed immediately.
“What is that?”
Marcus ignored her.
“How do you know that name?”
Dante smiled without warmth.
“Because the shell company that bought Miguel Reyes’s garage sixteen years ago was eventually absorbed into Laurent Urban Renewal Six.”
Elena stared at him.
“My father’s garage was sold?”
After Miguel died, Elena had been sixteen.
Her mother told her debt swallowed the business.
They lost the garage.
The house.
Nearly everything.
Dante now claimed Victor’s company somehow ended up with the property.
Marcus rubbed the back of his neck.
“That entity was dissolved years ago.”
“Not dissolved,” Dante replied. “Merged.”
“Into what?”
Dante looked directly at him.
“Aldridge Laurent Capital.”
Marcus’s face emptied.
Elena understood before anyone said it.
“Aldridge.”
Marcus’s family.
Patricia’s family investment firm.
Marcus whispered:
“That company belonged to my grandfather.”
The betrayal expanded again.
Not only Vivien’s father.
Marcus’s family.
Patricia suddenly appeared in the corridor.
Apparently she had followed her son.
“What is going on?”
Marcus turned.
“Mom, did Grandpa ever do business with Miguel Reyes?”
Her face changed so subtly most people would have missed it.
Elena did not.
“I don’t recognize the name.”
“That is a lie,” Dante said.
Patricia stiffened.
“No one asked you.”
Dante took one slow step toward her.
The security men at the end of the corridor shifted.
Patricia immediately looked less certain.
Dante said:
“Your father signed the acquisition papers for Miguel’s garage eleven days after Miguel died.”
Patricia’s lips parted.
Marcus stared at his mother.
“Why?”
She looked toward Elena.
Something like guilt appeared.
Then vanished.
“You people have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She turned to leave.
Dante spoke behind her.
“I have the acquisition file.”
Patricia stopped.
“And tomorrow morning, so will the federal attorney reviewing Victor Laurent’s shell companies.”
Silence.
Patricia slowly turned back.
“That would destroy Marcus’s firm.”
Marcus looked at her.
“Why would it?”
No one answered.
Then Patricia said something that made Elena’s heart stop.
“Because Marcus’s grandfather didn’t buy Miguel Reyes’s garage.”
May you like
She looked straight at Elena.
“He bought what Miguel had hidden underneath it.”
