Chapter 12 - The Cost of a Lie
Ethan walked into the library alone.
I waited several minutes before following.
He stood near the window.
The engagement lawn outside was being quietly dismantled.
Staff removed flowers.
Champagne disappeared.
The celebration vanished piece by piece.
“I feel stupid.”
Ethan did not turn toward me.
“You were deceived.”
“That sounds nicer.”
“It is also true.”
He laughed once.
“I’m thirty-four years old.”
“I negotiate hundred-million-dollar deals.”
“I’m supposed to know when someone is manipulating me.”
“Business contracts are often easier than people.”
He looked at me.
“You suspected her.”
“Yes.”
“And Dad would have?”
The question surprised me.
Your father had been dead seven years.
Yet in difficult moments, Ethan still measured himself against him.
“He might have.”
Ethan waited.
I smiled sadly.
“He also invested in a restaurant chain because the owner reminded him of his college roommate.”
Ethan almost smiled.
“He lost twelve million dollars.”
“I know.”
“So no.”
I walked closer.
“Your father was not impossible to fool.”
“He simply became good at surviving being wrong.”
Ethan looked outside.
“I was going to marry her in six weeks.”
“I know.”
“We chose a house.”
“I know.”
“She talked about children.”
His voice cracked.
That hurt most.
I placed a hand on his shoulder.
For a moment, he was not the confident executive everyone knew.
He was simply my son.
“I loved the person I thought she was.”
“That love was real.”
He looked at me.
“Even if she wasn’t?”
“Your feelings belonged to you.”
“No one can make them fake afterward.”
He breathed slowly.
Then his expression hardened.
“What happens now?”
“With the company?”
“With everything.”
I understood.
“The engagement is your decision.”
He stared at me.
“Mom.”
“I will not make it for you.”
“She humiliated you.”
“Yes.”
“She lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“Her father used our relationship to manipulate a deal.”
“Yes.”
He shook his head.
“You still won’t tell me what to do?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because if I choose your wife for you, I become another person controlling your life.”
He looked down.
That answer surprised him.
A knock came at the door.
Renee entered.
“We found more.”
Ethan immediately straightened.
“What?”
“Charles’s company received payments from three Mitchell-controlled vendors.”
“How much?”
“Just over two million dollars total.”
I frowned.
“Over what period?”
“Twenty-six months.”
That began before Ethan and Vanessa became engaged.
Perhaps before they even met.
Renee continued.
“There’s another issue.”
She handed me her tablet.
I scanned the screen.
A Carter Meridian employee access log.
Someone had downloaded confidential investment models.
Ethan leaned closer.
“Who?”
Renee pointed.
The credentials belonged to Ethan.
He stared at her.
“I didn’t download these.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“You were in London that day.”
Renee looked toward me.
“The login happened from Nashville.”
I felt cold.
Someone had used Ethan’s credentials.
And the files they copied included confidential acquisition targets.
George’s companies later invested in two of them.
This was no longer simply corruption.
May you like
It looked like corporate theft.
And someone had deliberately made it appear that Ethan was responsible.
