Chapter 6 - The Truth at the Boardroom Table
Victor Choi smiled when Daniel entered the boardroom.
That was his first mistake.
His second was smiling at Ava.
Twelve board members sat along a polished table overlooking downtown Chicago.
Victor stood at the opposite end.
Sixty-three.
Silver-haired.
Perfect navy suit.
The kind of man who could make cruelty sound like accounting.
"Ava," he said warmly. "You shouldn't have been dragged into this."
She sat beside Daniel.
"I think I've been dragged into enough things without being told the truth."
Victor's smile weakened.
Daniel placed a folder on the table.
"Withdraw the challenge."
Victor laughed.
"On what grounds?"
"Fraud."
Victor gestured at the board.
"Exactly my argument."
"Not mine."
Nathan distributed documents.
The first was Daniel's original medical report.
Then the amended version.
Then evidence showing the samples had been switched.
Then records connecting Richard Vale to Victor.
Finally, financial transfers showing Vale had deliberately destabilized Michael Bennett's company.
Victor stopped smiling.
Daniel never raised his voice.
"You manufactured a crisis in Baltimore. You manipulated Michael Bennett's debt. You inserted Lucas Mercer into Ava's life. Then you engineered a marriage because you believed you could keep both of us under surveillance."
Victor leaned back.
"Interesting story."
Ava spoke.
"We have Lucas."
Victor looked at her.
For the first time, something close to concern appeared.
"He recorded his conversations with Vale."
Nathan placed an audio transcript on the table.
"Vale has also agreed to cooperate."
Victor's attorney whispered to him.
Victor ignored the man.
Instead he looked at Daniel.
"You really believe this changes anything?"
Daniel said nothing.
Victor's gaze dropped toward Ava's stomach.
"The succession clause requires a biological heir."
Daniel slid one final envelope across the table.
Victor didn't touch it.
"Open it," Daniel said.
A board member did.
The paternity report moved around the table.
Silence followed.
Victor's face became pale.
Daniel spoke quietly.
"You spent eight years making me believe something was wrong with me."
Victor's jaw tightened.
"Your father made that decision."
"And you preserved it."
"It protected the company."
"No."
Daniel's eyes hardened.
"It protected you."
A vote followed.
Victor was removed from operational authority pending an independent investigation.
Financial regulators and attorneys would handle the rest.
No dramatic confrontation.
No physical revenge.
Just documents.
Evidence.
Consequences.
It was almost disappointingly quiet.
Yet when the boardroom emptied, Daniel remained seated.
Ava touched the table beside his hand.
"We won."
He looked at her.
"You won."
"We."
Daniel shook his head.
"You never should have been involved."
"Neither should you."
His eyes held hers.
Something unspoken had grown between them since the bathroom.
Ava finally asked the question she'd been avoiding.
"What happens now?"
Daniel knew exactly what she meant.
The contract was gone.
Her father's debt was released.
Victor's leverage was broken.
There was no reason for the marriage to continue.
Except the baby.
Daniel stood.
"You decide."
Ava felt irritation rise.
"Stop doing that."
His brow furrowed.
"Doing what?"
"Acting like you have no feelings because mine are more important."
Daniel looked genuinely taken aback.
She continued.
"Do you want me to leave?"
"No."
The answer came instantly.
Ava's heart skipped.
"Do you want the marriage?"
Daniel hesitated.
"The marriage we had? No."
Her chest tightened.
Then he stepped closer.
"But if you're asking whether I want you..."
He stopped.
Ava waited.
Daniel Choi—who could silence rooms by entering them—looked suddenly unsure.
"Yes," he said.
Ava couldn't speak.
"I wanted you at Lake Geneva before I knew your last name. I wanted you after the wedding and hated myself for it because I knew you hadn't chosen me. And now..."
His gaze briefly moved toward her stomach.
"Now I don't know how to separate what I feel for our child from what I feel for you."
Ava's eyes burned.
"You don't have to."
Daniel looked at her.
She stepped closer.
"This time I get to choose."
His voice went quiet.
"And?"
Ava took his hand.
"I haven't decided yet."
For one terrible second, Daniel looked wounded.
Then Ava smiled.
"But I'm staying while I figure it out."
A laugh escaped him.
A real one.
It transformed his entire face.
Ava had never seen it before.
That evening they returned to Lincoln Park.
For the first time, the mansion didn't feel quite so cold.
They ate dinner together.
Daniel asked questions about prenatal vitamins until Ava threatened to confiscate his phone.
He pretended not to be embarrassed.
At eleven, Ava went upstairs.
She stopped outside her bedroom.
Daniel stood farther down the hall.
The same hallway that had separated them every night since the wedding.
"Goodnight," he said.
Ava touched her door handle.
Then looked back.
"Daniel?"
"Yes?"
"Come here."
He approached.
She kissed him.
Not because of debt.
Not because of a contract.
Not because anybody had told her to.
Because she chose to.
When they separated, Daniel looked almost stunned.
Ava smiled.
"Goodnight."
She closed the door.
And for the first time since marrying him, she went to sleep happy.
At three in the morning, however, Daniel's phone rang.
Nathan.
One final discovery.
Michael Bennett's missing three million dollars had been located.
It hadn't gone to Richard Vale.
It had been deposited into an account created twenty-nine years earlier.
An account bearing the name of Daniel's late mother.
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And attached to it was a sealed letter addressed to:
AVA BENNETT.
