Chapter 10 - The Empire Beckett Was Willing to Risk
By noon, reporters knew.
No one knew how.
BECKETT VALE HAS SECRET CHILD.
BILLIONAIRE CEO MISSES MERGER TALKS AFTER PATERNITY SHOCK.
VALE HEIR HOSPITALIZED.
The third headline made Beckett furious.
“She has a name.”
Mason, standing outside the neonatal wing, looked confused.
“What?”
“They keep calling her ‘Vale heir.’ She's Celeste.”
“I agree, but our larger problem is that someone leaked private medical information.”
Beckett's expression darkened.
“Find them.”
“Already working.”
Violet emerged carrying a cup of tea.
“What happened?”
Beckett showed her the phone.
She turned pale.
“How do they know?”
“We don't know.”
“They know she's here?”
“Not the room.”
“I want to leave.”
“Violet—”
“I want Celeste away from reporters.”
“She isn't cleared.”
“I mean when she is.”
“Of course.”
“No photographers.”
“There won't be.”
“You can't promise that.”
“I can promise they won't get near her.”
Mason looked between them.
“I'll arrange private security.”
Violet stiffened.
“I don't want armed men surrounding my baby.”
“Discreet security,” Beckett corrected.
“No intimidation.”
“Agreed.”
Mason raised an eyebrow.
Beckett ignored him.
The board scheduled an emergency meeting.
Vale stock had fallen another six percent.
Public speculation centered on succession, the Arclight merger, and whether Beckett had concealed a child from shareholders.
“It is none of their business,” he snapped.
“Legally, mostly true,” Mason said.
“Mostly?”
“Your family trust complicates disclosure.”
Beckett swore quietly.
The trust.
His father again.
A direct descendant automatically became a contingent beneficiary.
Celeste's existence technically triggered reporting requirements.
“Handle it.”
“The board wants you present.”
“I’m not leaving the hospital.”
“They're threatening a confidence vote.”
Beckett looked at Mason.
“Then let them vote.”
“Beckett.”
“I said what I said.”
Mason lowered his voice.
“You could lose CEO authority.”
Violet had heard.
She approached.
“Go.”
“No.”
“Beckett.”
“No.”
“You staying beside a bassinet during a board meeting doesn't make you a better father.”
He stared at her.
“It makes me present.”
“You can be present in an hour.”
“What if something happens?”
“I’ll call.”
“What if—”
“Beckett.”
She placed a hand on his arm.
“Don't turn Celeste into another excuse for control.”
He went quiet.
“You can't control every bad possibility by standing three feet away.”
He knew she was right.
He hated it.
“I’ll be back in ninety minutes.”
“Two hours.”
“Ninety.”
“Fine.”
At headquarters, cameras surrounded the building.
Beckett entered through underground parking.
The boardroom was hostile.
Chairman Henry Caldwell began immediately.
“Your personal circumstances are destabilizing the company.”
“My daughter is not a circumstance.”
“Your unexplained absence cost shareholders—”
“Stop.”
Beckett's voice silenced the room.
“For years, I allowed everyone at this table to treat my willingness to sacrifice a personal life as evidence of leadership.”
No one moved.
“I rewarded employees for missed vacations. Praised executives who answered calls during family dinners. Built a culture where exhaustion was mistaken for loyalty.”
Several directors looked uncomfortable.
“I did that because my father taught me that anything competing with Vale Therapeutics was weakness.”
He placed both hands on the table.
“My father was wrong.”
Henry frowned.
“This is not therapy.”
“No. It is governance.”
Beckett continued.
“If this company cannot operate for two hours without its CEO, then we have a structural failure.”
Mason, sitting near the wall, almost smiled.
“I will remain CEO if the board believes I can lead effectively. I will not remain CEO if the condition is abandoning my daughter whenever markets become uncomfortable.”
Henry leaned back.
“Then perhaps you aren't the man who built this company.”
Beckett looked at him.
“No.”
He thought of Celeste's fingers.
Violet laughing.
The hospital alarm.
“I think that's the point.”
The confidence vote occurred.
Seven supported Beckett.
Five opposed.
Two abstained.
He survived.
Barely.
As he left, Mason caught up.
“Your father would've had a stroke.”
“My father needed therapy.”
“Definitely.”
Beckett's phone rang.
Violet.
He answered immediately.
“What happened?”
Her voice trembled.
“Someone came to the hospital asking for Celeste.”
Beckett stopped walking.
“Who?”
“They said they were family.”
“Name?”
“Amelia Vale.”
Everything inside him went still.
The sister he had learned about less than twenty-four hours earlier was standing in the same hospital as his daughter.
May you like
And she claimed she had come because she knew exactly who had threatened Violet.
---
