Chapter 8 - The Man Behind Northstar
Richard Hale was seventy-one and still dangerous in the quiet way powerful men often are.
He agreed to meet me at a private club downtown.
He denied wrongdoing.
He claimed Northstar had been created to rescue troubled Vance Capital projects without alarming investors.
“Luca came to me,” Richard said.
“Why?”
“Because he was desperate.”
“For money?”
“For validation.”
That sounded painfully plausible.
Richard said Luca had expanded too aggressively.
When projects began underperforming, he concealed the weakness by shifting obligations and finding temporary capital.
“What did you get?”
“Options.”
“In Vance Capital?”
“Yes.”
My stomach tightened.
Luca had been preparing to dilute my control.
The share restructuring would have cleared the final obstacle.
Twenty minutes.
That was all he thought he needed from me.
Richard smiled faintly.
“Your husband’s mistake wasn’t greed, Jessica.”
“What was it?”
“Thinking you were still the woman who would sign whatever kept the peace.”
I stood.
“You don’t know me.”
“No. But your mother did.”
I stopped.
Richard reached into his jacket and placed an envelope on the table.
“She made me promise to give you this if Luca ever tried to remove you.”
Inside was one sentence in my mother’s handwriting.
The day someone asks you to choose between peace and your own voice, make sure the peace isn’t simply your silence.
I left without another word.
Outside, my phone rang.
It was the board chair.
The full audit had uncovered a transfer scheduled for midnight.
If it went through, Vance Capital could lose control of its most valuable development.
May you like
Only one person could stop it.
Me.
