Chapter 7 - A Video Without a Beginning
The video spread within twenty minutes.
It had been filmed during Rosa and Ethan’s relationship four years earlier.
Rosa appeared in a hallway at a Boston hotel.
She entered Ethan’s suite shortly after midnight.
The edited clip ended there.
The implication was obvious.
News commentators began describing Rosa as a woman who had targeted Ethan before later joining his household staff.
Rosa watched only fifteen seconds.
Then she closed the screen.
“I can’t do this.”
Ethan stood beside her.
“That video proves nothing.”
“It doesn’t have to.”
Her voice cracked.
“People already decided what they want me to be.”
Margaret examined the footage.
“Do you remember this night?”
“Of course.”
Rosa looked furious now.
“We were dating.”
Ethan nodded.
“My company had a conference in Boston.”
Rosa pointed at the screen.
“I was presenting research at a university symposium.”
Margaret looked closer.
“Then there should be records.”
“There are.”
Rosa sat down.
“But nobody is going to care about conference records when they can use the word maid beside billionaire.”
Ethan flinched because she was right.
The story was more profitable than the truth.
Daniel entered carrying a tablet.
“The clip came from hotel security archives.”
Ethan frowned.
“Four-year-old security footage?”
“Someone requested it months ago.”
“Who?”
“The request originated from Haynes Capital.”
Ethan’s expression darkened.
Victoria’s father.
Charles Haynes.
The man who had spent years cultivating Ethan as a business partner.
The man who toasted their engagement.
The man who repeatedly said family and business should never mix.
Apparently, he had meant other people’s families.
Margaret stood.
“This is no longer merely Victoria protecting herself.”
Ethan nodded.
“It’s her father.”
Rosa looked at him.
“Why would Charles care about Lily?”
Ethan stared at the forged agreement.
“Because my marriage to Victoria guaranteed his company access to the Caldwell development deal.”
Margaret added quietly.
“A deal worth approximately two billion dollars over the next decade.”
Rosa nearly laughed from disbelief.
“So my daughter is standing between them and two billion dollars?”
“No.”
Ethan’s expression sharpened.
“I am.”
He called an emergency board meeting.
Margaret warned him.
“If Charles has allies inside Caldwell Global, they may attempt to remove you.”
“Let them try.”
“You need to know who they are first.”
Ethan paused.
Daniel placed another photograph on the table.
It showed Charles Haynes entering a Manhattan private club.
Beside him walked a familiar man.
Ethan’s uncle, Richard Caldwell.
Richard controlled twelve percent of the company voting shares.
He had also spent years telling Ethan that marrying Victoria would stabilize the family.
Ethan looked at the date.
Six months earlier.
The same week the forged business agreement had been filed.
Rosa watched his face.
“You trusted him?”
“He taught me how to read a balance sheet.”
Ethan’s voice went flat.
“He stood beside me at my mother’s funeral.”
Then Daniel placed a second photograph down.
This one showed Richard with Victoria.
In her hand was the photograph of Lily.
Ethan stared at it.
Victoria had known.
Richard had known.
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And the only person who had never known Ethan had a daughter...
was Ethan himself.
