Chương 5
“You liked having me call.”
Thomas lowered the certificate.
“For about six months.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
“Then stop pretending you were some victim.”
Daniel felt Mia’s hand return to his sleeve.
He had almost forgotten she was listening.
That realization struck him with shame.
He turned.
The nanny met his eyes.
“She shouldn’t be here for this.”
“No,” Daniel said.
Mia clutched the folder tighter.
“I’m not leaving.”
“Mia.”
“No.”
Her voice shook, but she held his gaze.
“You always say not to leave when something is scary.”
Daniel almost smiled.
He had said that.
He had said it after a thunderstorm once, and after she got lost for four minutes in a crowded museum and tried to hide in a restroom because she thought he would be angry.
He crouched until they were eye level.
“This is different.”
“Because you’re scared too?”
The question went straight through him.
He glanced at Vanessa.
Then Eric.
Then the locked doors.
“Yes.”
Mia swallowed.
“So I stay with you.”
Daniel opened his mouth.
Nothing useful came.
The nanny bent beside her.
“You can stay close without hearing every grown-up thing.”
Mia looked at Daniel.
He nodded.
The nanny guided her several yards away, toward the first pew, close enough to see him.
Mia sat without releasing the red folder.
Daniel stood.
Eric had been watching.
“You always were good with her,” he said.
Daniel turned toward him.
“Don’t talk about my daughter.”
Eric’s eyes hardened.
“I’m not your enemy.”
“You locked the doors.”
“To force five minutes of attention.”
“You forged my signature.”
“To stop you from selling.”
“You brought documents to my wedding and threatened a room full of people.”
Eric’s face tightened.
“You think I wanted this?”
Daniel gave him a flat look.
“I’m getting tired of that question.”
Vanessa looked toward Eric.
“You said he would sign privately.”
“I said he might.”
“You said there would be no scene.”
“There wouldn’t have been if she hadn’t found the certificate.”
He nodded toward Mia.
Daniel stepped between his daughter and Eric’s line of sight.
“Careful.”
Eric raised both hands.
“I’m not blaming her.”
“You just did.”
“I’m stating what happened.”
“No.”
Daniel’s voice stayed low.
“You’re stating the part that makes you sound less responsible.”
Eric looked away.
That silence carried more admission than anything else he had said.
Daniel glanced toward the videographer.
“Did you get through?”
The man nodded.
“Dispatcher answered.”
Eric turned sharply.
The videographer lifted his phone.
“They’re sending deputies.”
A murmur moved through the guests.
Several people exhaled.
Daniel’s brother muttered, “Good.”
Eric rubbed a hand over his mouth.
For the first time, the situation seemed to reach him in practical terms.
Police.
Statements.
Phones.
Witnesses.
A locked door.
Forged corporate documents.
Daniel watched him calculate.
“Unlock it now.”
Eric looked at the door.
“Eric.”
He walked toward the lock.
Vanessa said, “Wait.”
Everyone looked at her.
She seemed surprised by her own voice.
“Wait.”
Daniel stared.
“Why?”
Vanessa’s eyes moved toward Eric’s papers.
“If he opens those doors, people leave.”
“Yes.”
“They start talking.”
“They already are.”
“You don’t understand.”
Daniel nearly laughed.
“That sentence has had a remarkable day.”
Her jaw trembled once.
Then steadied.
“If this gets out before we know what those documents actually do, the company could be damaged.”
Eric looked at her.
A strange expression passed between them.
Daniel caught it.
“What documents actually do?”
Vanessa said nothing.
Daniel turned toward Eric.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
Eric lowered his gaze to the papers.
“I told you.”
“No, you told me what you wanted me to sign.”
Daniel stepped closer.
“What has already been filed?”
Eric’s face changed.
Barely.
Enough.
Daniel felt something cold settle through him.
“Eric.”
Vanessa whispered, “Don’t.”
He looked at her.
Daniel followed the exchange.
“You’ve already filed something.”
Eric said, “Not a transfer.”
“What?”
“A board consent.”
Daniel stared.
“With whose approval?”
“Yours.”
Daniel felt his hands curl.
“My forged approval.”
“The signature is authorized under the power of attorney.”
“You keep saying that like repetition turns fraud into policy.”
Eric flinched again.
“It removed you as chief executive pending review.”
The chapel went silent.
Daniel did not react at first.
The sentence was too clean.
Too corporate.
It sounded like one of those sterile lines read in a conference room while somebody’s career was being dismantled in real time.
His brother said, “What?”
Daniel kept his eyes on Eric.
“Pending review of what?”
“A proposed sale contrary to shareholder interests.”
“I’m the majority shareholder.”
“Not under the revised voting structure.”
Daniel stared at him.
“What revised voting structure?”
Eric looked toward Vanessa.
There it was again.
Daniel turned.
Vanessa seemed suddenly unable to meet his eyes.
A sensation like vertigo passed through him.
“What did you sign this morning?”
She shook her head.
“I didn’t know.”
“Vanessa.”
“I didn’t know what it was.”
Daniel glanced toward the frozen image on the projection screen.
Vanessa in a silk robe.
Eric handing her papers.
Her signature.
Her hand on his arm.
“You signed it.”
“He told me it protected your holdings.”
“From me?”
“I didn’t know that.”
Eric spoke quietly.
“That isn’t exactly what I said.”
Vanessa spun toward him.
“Shut up.”
“No.”
Something changed in Eric.
His composure had been eroding by degrees, but now his face hardened into open irritation.
“You don’t get to rewrite this because it went bad.”
Vanessa stared at him.
“I did what you told me.”
“You did what benefited you.”
“I was trying to protect Daniel.”
Thomas made a sound behind them.
Vanessa whirled.
“What?”
He shook his head.
“Nothing.”
“No, say it.”
Thomas looked at Daniel instead.
“She says that whenever she wants credit for surviving her own decisions.”
Vanessa’s face went rigid.
Daniel almost told him to stop.
Then he looked at Vanessa and did not.
Eric tapped the stack against his palm.
“The voting structure placed a temporary block on any sale.”
Daniel said, “Through whose shares?”
“Preferred conversion rights.”
May you like
“That doesn’t answer me.”
“Vanessa’s.”
