Chapter 7
A director named Alan Brooks cleared his throat.
“That’s common in private equity.”
“I know.”
Rachel’s tone remained calm.
“That doesn’t make it intelligent.”
Victor smiled without warmth.
“You’ve been the controlling shareholder for less than twenty-four hours.”
“And the math remains the same whether I’ve owned the shares for twenty-four hours or twenty-four years.”
Monica covered a smile.
Victor didn’t.
The meeting lasted three hours.
Rachel asked questions.
She listened.
She refused to be baited.
At 11:26, Samuel passed her a handwritten note.
Daniel Morgan has arrived downstairs.
Rachel read it twice.
Then folded it.
“Five-minute break.”
She left the boardroom.
Daniel stood in the private executive lobby.
He looked as though he hadn’t slept.
His tie was crooked.
His hair, normally perfect, wasn’t.
Three security officers remained several yards away.
Daniel stared at Rachel.
For a long moment he couldn’t speak.
“I saw the news.”
Rachel said nothing.
Her inheritance had become public at 7:14 that morning.
By eight, her photograph was appearing across financial media.
Daniel stepped closer.
“Fifty billion?”
“Approximately.”
“Rachel…”
She watched his face carefully.
It was happening exactly as she’d feared.
Everything she used to beg him to give freely was suddenly there.
Attention.
Concern.
Urgency.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Rachel almost couldn’t believe the question.
“I came home to tell you.”
He flinched.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“I made a mistake.”
“You made several.”
“Vanessa is gone.”
Rachel stared at him.
Daniel said it as though delivering evidence of redemption.
“She left this morning.”
“Why?”
His silence lasted too long.
Rachel understood.
“Because she found out.”
“No.”
“Daniel.”
“It wasn’t like that.”
Rachel laughed once.
Not cruelly.
Sadly.
“Wasn’t it?”
Daniel rubbed a hand across his face.
“You have to understand what was happening.”
“I’m trying.”
“I thought our marriage was finished.”
“So you had an affair.”
“I know how that sounds.”
“It sounds exactly like what happened.”
He looked toward the glass wall overlooking Chicago.
“Vanessa made me feel like I mattered.”
There it was.
May you like
Rachel knew Daniel well enough to hear the child beneath the executive.
His father had spent Daniel’s entire youth telling him he would never amount to anything.
