Chapter 6 - The Hidden Owner
Celeste wanted five million dollars.
Adrian wanted to pay her.
I wanted her arrested.
Margaret wanted everyone to stop making emotional decisions.
So we compromised.
Adrian agreed to meet Celeste at a hotel lounge while investigators monitored the conversation legally through cooperating witnesses and counsel.
I did not attend.
I watched from another room.
Seeing Adrian sit across from Celeste made something twist inside me.
She reached for his hand.
He moved it away.
“You said you had information.”
Celeste smiled.
“You always were impatient.”
“Who owns Northstar?”
“You really don't know?”
“No.”
She studied him.
Then laughed softly.
“That's almost disappointing.”
“Celeste.”
“You're going to lose Claire.”
“I already lost Claire.”
For the first time, Celeste's smile disappeared.
“You don't have to.”
Adrian stared at her.
“My son died while I was with you.”
“You didn't know.”
“She called me.”
“You were busy.”
“I chose not to answer.”
Celeste looked irritated rather than guilty.
That told me more about her than anything else.
“I didn't come here to discuss Claire,” she said.
“Then tell me who owns Northstar.”
“Five million.”
“No.”
“Then enjoy unemployment.”
Adrian stood.
Celeste spoke quickly.
“Your father-in-law knew him.”
Adrian stopped.
So did I.
“He hated Thomas Whitmore,” Celeste continued.
“Who?”
She smiled.
“Victor Hale.”
I knew the name.
Everyone at Vale Meridian did.
Victor Hale had been my father's original business partner.
Twenty-seven years earlier, they had separated after a bitter dispute.
Dad rarely discussed him.
When he did, his voice became cold.
Victor later founded Hale Continental, one of Vale Meridian's largest competitors.
He was seventy now.
Powerful.
Private.
And apparently connected to Northstar.
The investigators began digging.
Within forty-eight hours, they confirmed that an offshore trust associated with Victor's family had provided Northstar's initial capital.
But there was another twist.
Victor hadn't contacted Celeste first.
She contacted him.
She offered Haven.
She offered internal Vale Meridian forecasts.
And she offered something else.
Adrian.
Not literally.
His reputation.
Celeste had constructed Northstar so that if the scheme was discovered, documents would point toward Adrian.
Their affair made the story believable.
CEO steals wife's inherited project with mistress.
Perfect scandal.
Adrian had betrayed me.
But someone else had planned to use that betrayal to destroy him.
The distinction didn't save our marriage.
It did, however, matter to the company.
At the next board meeting, I presented the findings.
Adrian remained suspended.
Martin resigned.
Celeste was terminated for cause.
The forensic audit expanded.
Then a director asked:
“Claire, who is running Vale Meridian while this continues?”
Everyone looked at me.
We had appointed an interim operations committee.
It was working.
Barely.
“You are,” Samuel Price said.
I frowned.
“You've effectively been making the major decisions for two weeks.”
“Temporarily.”
“Why temporarily?”
Because I had never wanted Dad's chair.
Because Adrian had.
Because after Dad died, I had been exhausted by grief and happy to let my husband carry the burden.
Now grief had brought me back.
The irony was cruel.
“I'll consider it,” I said.
After the meeting, Noah approached.
“There's someone waiting downstairs.”
“Who?”
“Victor Hale.”
I almost laughed.
“Of course there is.”
Victor entered Dad's old conference room using a silver cane.
He was tall despite his age, white-haired, immaculate.
“You look like Thomas,” he said.
“That's either a compliment or a tactic.”
His mouth twitched.
“Definitely Thomas's daughter.”
“Why are you here?”
“To correct an assumption.”
“You funded Northstar.”
“I funded an investment vehicle presented to me as legally licensed intellectual property.”
“By Celeste.”
“Yes.”
“You didn't question why my father's project was suddenly available?”
“I questioned it.”
“And invested anyway.”
Victor's expression hardened.
“Your father and I were enemies, Claire. That doesn't mean I steal.”
“Interesting moral distinction.”
He accepted the insult.
Then he placed an envelope on the table.
“Celeste approached me with documents bearing your husband's authorization.”
“Forgeries.”
“I know that now.”
“Why should I believe you?”
“Because I'm giving you the original correspondence.”
I opened the envelope.
One email caught my attention.
Celeste had written:
Once Claire is removed from control, A.V. will have unrestricted authority over the trust assets.
I looked at Victor.
“Removed how?”
“I asked the same question.”
“And?”
“She never answered.”
A chill ran through me.
My trust assets.
My voting shares.
My father's company.
Suddenly, the affair, the forged badge, the stolen project, and Adrian's proxy connected in a way I hadn't considered.
Someone hadn't merely been planning to steal Haven.
They had been planning for me to lose control of my trust.
May you like
And until six days in Napa changed everything, Adrian possessed the one thing they needed most.
My proxy.
