Chapter 3 - The Woman Behind The Empire
Rebecca slept for almost five hours.
It was more sleep than she had expected.
Her new apartment was smaller than the penthouse.
It had no private elevator.
No imported marble.
No panoramic dining room built for entertaining investors Daniel barely remembered after the parties ended.
But the apartment belonged completely to her.
Rebecca stood barefoot beside the windows at seven the next morning.
She watched sunlight spread between the buildings.
Then the doorbell rang.
Caroline had arranged breakfast.
Rebecca opened the door.
Her son stood there instead.
Adam Carter was twenty-one years old.
He had Daniel’s dark hair and Rebecca’s steady gray eyes.
“Mom?”
Rebecca’s composure cracked for the first time.
“Adam.”
He stepped inside and wrapped his arms around her.
“I heard what happened.”
Rebecca closed her eyes.
“Who told you?”
“Dad.”
She pulled away.
“What did he say?”
Adam hesitated.
“That you went crazy.”
Rebecca almost laughed.
“Of course.”
“He said you sold the penthouse to punish him.”
“That part is true.”
Adam stared at her.
“Mom.”
“I didn’t sell it because I was angry.”
Rebecca gestured toward the kitchen.
“Sit down.”
She explained everything.
The affair.
Chloe moving in.
Daniel pointing at Rebecca after Chloe joked about taking out the trash.
The order to pack her bags.
Adam’s face became harder with every sentence.
“He actually said that?”
“Yes.”
Adam looked toward the window.
“I knew there were problems.”
“You didn’t know this.”
“No.”
His voice dropped.
“I knew about Chloe.”
Rebecca froze.
Adam immediately looked ashamed.
“I saw them together three months ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know how.”
Rebecca stared at him.
That hurt more than she expected.
Adam swallowed.
“I confronted Dad.”
“And?”
“He told me it was complicated.”
Rebecca laughed bitterly.
“Men always call betrayal complicated when the truth is simple.”
Adam reached across the table.
“I’m sorry.”
She squeezed his hand.
“You were put in an impossible position.”
Adam hesitated again.
“There’s something else.”
Rebecca looked at him.
“Dad asked me for money last month.”
Rebecca’s eyes narrowed.
“How much?”
“Two hundred thousand.”
“For what?”
“He said there was a temporary cash-flow problem at the company.”
Rebecca sat perfectly still.
Daniel had told her Carter Development was having its strongest year ever.
“Did you give it to him?”
“No.”
“He got angry.”
Adam pulled out his phone.
“He told me I owed him because everything I had came from him.”
Rebecca’s expression changed.
“Everything you have did not come from him.”
She stood and walked toward a small desk.
From a locked folder, she removed an old document.
“My father created a trust for you before he died.”
Adam looked confused.
“What trust?”
Rebecca placed the document before him.
“One Daniel was never supposed to touch.”
Adam read the first page.
His face slowly went pale.
“This has my name on it.”
“Yes.”
“There’s almost eight million dollars here.”
“There was.”
Adam looked up immediately.
“What do you mean was?”
Rebecca’s phone rang.
It was Caroline.
Rebecca answered.
Caroline did not bother with a greeting.
“We found something.”
Rebecca’s chest tightened.
“What?”
“There was an attempted loan against Adam’s trust assets.”
Rebecca stared directly at her son.
“By whom?”
Caroline took a breath.
“Daniel.”
Adam heard the name.
His face changed.
Rebecca slowly sat back down.
The betrayal was no longer only about another woman.
Daniel had reached for their son’s future too.
May you like
And suddenly, Rebecca understood that the board meeting was not going to be about saving her marriage.
It was going to be about discovering just how much damage her husband had already done.
