Chương 4
“That is not what’s happening.”
“You told everyone she was too ashamed to come.”
“I made a joke.”
“You made it six times.”
Khloe looked at Anna. “How long can we leave the public total unchanged?”
“Twenty minutes before the auctioneer announces the match.”
“Can we pause the match?”
“We can. It will raise questions.”
“We already have questions.”
Julian stepped between them and the screen. “You are not suspending my company’s pledge based on a banking delay.”
Khloe felt the baby press beneath her ribs. She shifted her weight and waited for the discomfort to pass.
Julian noticed the movement and lowered his voice.
“You’re tired. You’re under stress. Let us handle this on Monday.”
There it was.
Not concern. Disqualification disguised as concern.
During their marriage, he had used the same tone when she objected to decisions in front of other people. You’re tired. You’re emotional. You’ve had a difficult week. Every phrase made her appear unreasonable if she resisted and unstable if she became angry.
Khloe looked at him.
“I am pregnant,” she said. “I am not unavailable.”
Anna’s mouth tightened with approval.
Gabriel remained silent.
Khloe asked Anna to suspend the automatic match from the public total. No accusations. No announcement. All individual donations would remain recorded, but Duval Nexus funds would not appear until the bank verified receipt.
Julian’s face changed.
“If you do that,” he said, “reporters will assume insolvency.”
“Are they wrong?”
Dalia whispered his name.
He ignored her.
Khloe felt the old instinct to protect him rise before she could stop it. For fourteen years, she had corrected his mistakes in private so he could remain impressive in public. She had rewritten speeches, returned calls, soothed employees, and remembered the names of people he had offended. Even after they separated, she had approved a joint statement saying the marriage ended with mutual respect because he claimed investors feared personal instability.
He had rewarded her by telling people she had become resentful because she could not give him a family.
The instinct to protect him was not love. It was muscle memory.
She looked at the pending transfer.
“Anna,” she said, “suspend it.”
Julian left the room without speaking.
Dalia did not follow immediately.
She stood near the tablecloth rack, looking at Khloe with a mixture of resentment and embarrassment.
“I didn’t know what he said about you,” she said.
Khloe picked up a bottle of water from the table. “Which part?”
Dalia’s cheeks colored.
“That isn’t fair.”
“No,” Khloe said. “It isn’t.”
Dalia looked toward the door. “He told me you refused to accept the marriage was over.”
“I filed first.”
“He said that was strategic.”
“Everything becomes strategy when the truth is inconvenient.”
Dalia touched her engagement ring with her thumb. “He said you didn’t want children.”
Khloe unscrewed the water bottle but did not drink.
It was possible to hate a lie and still feel humiliated by the need to correct it.
“I wanted them,” she said. “He wanted the option of wanting them later.”
Dalia’s eyes moved toward Khloe’s belly.
“Then this…”
“This is not a message to Julian.”
“I didn’t say it was.”
“You were thinking it.”
Dalia looked down.
Khloe drank the water. It was warm.
“Go find him,” she said. “He’ll need someone to blame before the auction.”
Dalia flinched.
For a moment, Khloe regretted the cruelty. Then Dalia lifted her chin, pageant training returning like posture.
“You think I’m stupid.”
“No.”
“You think I’m young.”
“You are young.”
“That isn’t the same thing.”
“No,” Khloe said. “It isn’t.”
Dalia left.
The door closed behind her.
Anna sat down and rubbed one stockinged foot over the other.
“I liked her better when I thought she was an idiot,” she said.
Gabriel gave her a look.
“What?” Anna asked. “Pregnancy does not require everyone else to become polite.”
Khloe laughed once, unexpectedly. The sound loosened something in her chest.
Then Anna’s expression grew serious.
“There’s more.”
She opened a second file.
Over the previous six months, donations processed through Duval Nexus had been transferred to Allesian Hearts in irregular batches. Most arrived within three business days. Four large contributions had taken between twelve and nineteen days. During those gaps, the donor portal still displayed the money as available.
“Could be settlement delays,” Gabriel said.
“It could,” Anna agreed. “Except the delays occur near Duval Nexus reporting dates.”
Khloe studied the timeline.
The pattern was subtle. Money came in from donors, remained inside the processing system, then moved to Allesian Hearts shortly after Duval Nexus published quarterly liquidity figures.
“They’re counting restricted donations as temporarily available cash,” she said.
Anna nodded. “That is my concern.”
Gabriel moved closer to the screen.
“Have you found the same pattern with other charities?”
“We do not have their internal records.”
“I can request them from organizations in our portfolio.”
Khloe looked at him. “Carefully.”
“I know.”
“No quiet calls that sound like accusations.”
“I said I know.”
She heard the edge in his voice and looked up.
Gabriel rarely showed irritation, which sometimes made it more effective. He was tired too. He had spent months helping stabilize Allesian Hearts, and he had personally guaranteed a bridge loan after discovering that the previous board had approved grants without confirming available cash.
Khloe touched his wrist.
“I’m sorry.”
He looked at her hand, then at her face.
“I am capable of restraint,” he said.
“You own three newspapers.”
“Two.”
“You see how little comfort that provides.”
Anna pushed the laptop toward them. “You may continue flirting with corporate governance after I leave.”
Khloe removed her hand.
“We are not flirting.”
Anna put on her shoes. “I’m sixty-two, not dead.”
The auction began without the automatic match.
May you like
Charles Merritt told the ballroom that a technical verification delay required the pledge to be listed separately. The wording was accurate, bloodless, and immediately suspicious.
Julian returned to his table but did not look toward the stage. Dalia sat beside him with both hands in her lap. The physical distance between their chairs was less than an inch. It appeared enormous.
