Chương 10
“What did you do with it?”
“I gave it to him.”
My eyes went to Ethan.
He said nothing.
Vanessa continued.
“He copied it.”
“How much?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where?”
“Office server at first.”
Ethan swore.
Vanessa’s chin lifted.
“You wanted honesty.”
“Not from you.”
That landed.
Her face changed.
The last residue of whatever loyalty she had carried for him seemed to leave.
She looked at me again.
“He had me organize the contact records.”
“Vanessa.”
She ignored him.
“Names, companies, notes, relationship history, who trusted you, who had conflicts, who might take a meeting if your name was mentioned.”
My knees suddenly felt weak.
I sat on the stair.
Vanessa kept talking.
“I didn’t know at first that they were yours.”
“At first.”
“No.”
“When did you find out?”
She looked at Ethan.
“After I found emails attached to some of the records.”
“What emails?”
“Old introductions.”
My voice sounded far away.
“Mine?”
“Yes.”
Daniel said, “Emily, do not touch the drive yet.”
Ethan snapped, “Shut up, Mercer.”
Vanessa looked at the phone.
“Is that Daniel?”
“Yes.”
Something crossed her face.
Recognition.
I caught it.
“You know him?”
“Not personally.”
“Then why did you react?”
She hesitated.
Ethan stepped down another stair.
“Vanessa, leave.”
She looked at him.
“No.”
“Now.”
“You said you’d protect me.”
The words came out small.
More painful because of it.
Ethan’s face shut down.
“This isn’t the place.”
“You said legal would make it look like I acted alone.”
My stomach dropped.
He said, “That’s not what I said.”
She laughed again.
This time tears filled her eyes.
“You told me the company had to survive.”
I looked at Ethan.
He stared at Vanessa as if he could force the past back into her mouth.
“What did legal ask you this morning?” I said.
Vanessa wiped beneath one eye.
“They wanted to know who accessed archived investor materials.”
“And?”
“I told them the truth.”
Ethan said, “You told them your version.”
“No.”
Vanessa looked directly at him.
“I gave them the messages.”
His face emptied.
“What messages?”
“The ones where you told me to remove Emily’s name from the updated internal decks before the compliance review.”
No one moved.
Even Daniel was silent.
Vanessa held the envelope toward me.
“This is yours.”
I did not take it.
Not yet.
“What else is in there?”
She looked down at the padded envelope.
“A printout.”
“Of what?”
Her eyes lifted to mine.
“The equity ledger.”
Ethan said, “Do not give her that.”
Vanessa’s hand stopped shaking.
I looked at my husband.
“Why not?”
He did not answer.
Vanessa did.
“Because the advisory equity wasn’t sitting in a pool.”
She swallowed.
“It was issued.”
I stood slowly.
“To whom?”
Vanessa looked at Ethan once.
Then back at me.
“To a holding company.”
My heart began pounding.
“What holding company?”
Her voice dropped.
“Bennett Strategic Partners.”
I stared at her.
“That company doesn’t exist.”
Vanessa’s face crumpled slightly.
“Yes, it does.”
Ethan turned away.
I watched the back of his neck redden.
Vanessa said, “He created it four years ago.”
The hallway seemed to shift around me.
“In whose name?”
She looked at the envelope again.
Then she answered.
“Yours.”
I stared at Vanessa until the words stopped sounding like English.
“That is not possible.”
Vanessa’s eyes flicked toward Ethan.
“It’s registered in Delaware.”
My mouth went dry.
“I have never registered a company in Delaware.”
“I know.”
Ethan moved away from the stairs and walked into the living room.
Not toward us.
Away.
That frightened me more than if he had shouted.
“Ethan.”
He stopped beside the fireplace but did not turn around.
“Tell me she’s wrong.”
He pressed both hands against his hips.
“It wasn’t supposed to become this.”
Vanessa made a small sound of disbelief.
I looked at the envelope again.
“Give it to me.”
She held it out.
Daniel’s voice came through my phone.
“Emily, don’t open or alter the drive.”
“I know.”
“You need counsel.”
“I know.”
Ethan turned then.
“Counsel?”
His laugh was short and ugly.
“You’re going to hire lawyers because of an entity created for your benefit?”
“For my benefit.”
“That’s what it was.”
“Then why didn’t I know about it?”
“Because you didn’t want anything to do with business.”
I felt something almost like pity for him.
He really believed that sentence could save him.
“I didn’t want to work.”
“You left.”
“After losing a pregnancy.”
His face tightened.
“I know what happened.”
“No.”
My voice stayed quiet.
“You knew what happened to my body.”
He looked at me.
“You apparently decided the rest belonged to you.”
“Don’t turn this into some moral indictment.”
Vanessa let out a breath that sounded almost like laughter.
Ethan rounded on her.
“You should leave.”
“I’m not leaving her alone with you.”
His expression changed.
For one strange second, Vanessa and I both looked at him.
He seemed to realize how that sounded.
“I’m not going to hurt her.”
Vanessa lowered her eyes.
“I didn’t say you would.”
“But you thought it.”
“I don’t know what to think anymore.”
Daniel spoke through the phone again.
“Emily, I want you somewhere else.”
Ethan’s eyes snapped toward the phone.
“You do not get a vote in my house.”
Daniel’s reply came immediately.
“I’m not talking to you.”
“Of course you aren’t.”
I raised my hand.
“Stop.”
Neither man spoke.
I looked at Vanessa.
“What does the ledger say?”
She hesitated.
“Approximately three point eight percent.”
For a moment, nothing moved.
“Three point eight percent of what?”
“Cole Systems.”
I almost smiled because the number was too large to absorb.
“That can’t be right.”
“It was larger originally.”
Ethan said, “Dilution.”
I turned toward him.
His face had changed again.
He was back in business mode now.
Numbers.
Structures.
Anything but the human meaning.
“It diluted through later rounds.”
I stared at him.
“How much is it worth?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“Valuation, liquidity, preferred rights.”
“How much?”
He rubbed his mouth.
May you like
“On paper?”
“Yes.”
