Part 6
“Then Richard has a problem.”
“So do you. Adrian’s attorney sent a litigation hold notice. He claims you have been undermining his marriage and trying to block his appointment because you cannot surrender control.”
Victoria almost laughed. There would have been no humor in it.
“What do you need from me?” she asked.
“Nothing today. That is the point. Do not contact directors. Do not contact employees. Do not issue instructions about Adrian’s access or role. The independent committee will meet at noon.”
“He may destroy records.”
“We sent preservation notices.”
“And he will honor them because lawyers used bold font?”
“Victoria.”
A movement at the clinic door made her sit straighter. It was not Elena.
Margaret’s voice softened by one degree. “You need personal counsel.”
“I have counsel.”
“You have company counsel. That distinction should have become clear sometime around sunrise.”
The call ended.
Samuel returned twenty minutes later alone.
“She asked me to wait outside,” he said.
Victoria nodded.
He stood beside the car rather than getting in. Samuel had driven for her for nine years and had offered opinions exactly three times. Once about tires. Once about a hotel in Lisbon. Once about a man Victoria had considered appointing chief financial officer.
“Mrs. Vale,” he said, “you should eat something.”
That was not the opinion she had expected.
“There is coffee in the cup holder.”
“That is not food.”
He walked into the grocery store and returned with a banana and a packet of crackers. Victoria ate both because refusing would turn the moment into something larger.
Elena emerged at ten fifteen wearing the canvas shoes he had bought. A paper bandage circled her wrist.
Victoria opened the door but did not ask what the doctor had found.
Elena slid into the seat.
“It’s a sprain,” she said. “No fracture.”
Victoria released a breath.
“They photographed it. I told them what happened.”
The second sentence mattered more.
“Do you have the report?”
“They’ll send it to an email address I created this morning.”
Samuel started the car.
“I also called a lawyer,” Elena said. “Her office can see me at one.”
Victoria kept her voice neutral. “Do you need transportation?”
“I need you to come.”
Victoria turned.
“Not into the meeting,” Elena added. “Just to the building.”
“All right.”
The lawyer’s office occupied the second floor above a marine supply shop. Her name was Dana Ko, and she wore gray slacks, a cardigan, and no visible impatience. She met Elena in the lobby, shook Victoria’s hand without deference, and said the first meeting might take two hours.
Victoria waited in the car again.
At twelve, the independent committee suspended Adrian from operational authority pending review. At twelve fifteen, Vale Meridian’s share price fell seven percent after an anonymous source told a financial news site the succession vote had been delayed by “an internal family dispute.”
At twelve twenty, a photograph of Victoria leaving the Millbrook hotel appeared online.
The picture showed Samuel carrying a pharmacy bag and Elena in hotel slippers. Her face was turned away, but the ivory shawl made her identifiable to anyone who had seen the engagement portraits.
By one, the headline had become: VALE HEIRESS HIDES SON’S WIFE AFTER CLIFFSIDE ALTERCATION.
Elena came downstairs at three.
She saw the story on Victoria’s phone before Victoria could turn it over.
“Who took that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Does the hotel have my name?”
“No.”
“Then someone followed us.”
“Possibly.”
“Adrian?”
“Possibly.”
Elena opened the rear door but did not enter. “Stop saying possibly.”
Victoria looked up at her.
“I don’t know,” she said. “That is the truth.”
Elena’s jaw tightened.
Dana Ko stood on the sidewalk behind her. “We should assume her location is compromised,” the lawyer said. “I have a confidential shelter referral, but Elena would prefer somewhere not operated through a family network.”
Victoria understood the implication.
“My sister lives in Oregon,” Elena said. “I haven’t spoken to her in a year.”
“Why not?” Victoria asked.
Elena looked at her.
Victoria closed her eyes briefly. “That was not my question to ask.”
“Adrian hates her.”
Dana’s expression did not change, but she wrote something on a pad.
“She told me not to marry him,” Elena continued. “I called her jealous. Then I stopped returning her messages.”
“Would she take you in?” Dana asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you want to call her?”
Elena stared toward the harbor. Gulls moved above the roofs, hanging nearly still against the wind.
“Not yet.”
Dana handed her a folder. “For tonight, I recommend a place that cannot be tied easily to either family. No social media. No location sharing. Do not respond to Adrian directly. Preserve every message, even if it seems irrelevant.”
“My phone is locked.”
“We’ll have a forensic technician look at it. They may not be able to restore access, especially if the account credentials have changed. Do you have another device?”
“My old tablet might be in a storage box at the conservatory.”
“When did you last use it?”
“Two years ago.”
“Do not count on it. But we can ask the conservatory to preserve the box without opening it.”
Elena touched the folder against her chest.
“I need my passport.”
Dana nodded. “We will request access to your belongings. If they refuse, we address that through counsel. Do not go back alone.”
Victoria said, “I can retrieve it.”
Both women looked at her.
She corrected herself. “Only if Elena asks.”
Elena got into the car.
Dana leaned down to the open window. “There is one more issue. Adrian’s lawyer alleges Elena assaulted Celeste and is threatening to seek an emergency psychiatric evaluation.”
Victoria’s hand closed around the seat belt.
“On what basis?”
“An account from Dr. Rosen stating Elena expressed hopelessness during a consultation three months ago.”
Elena went pale.
“I told him I felt trapped.”
Dana nodded. “Do you remember his exact response?”
May you like
“He asked whether I had considered hurting myself. I said no.”
“Did you sign a release allowing him to speak with Adrian?”
