Chapter 8 - Brother and Sister
Lucas was escorted from his own office at 9:20 the next morning.
Not by police.
By Vale House security officers following an instruction approved by the reconstituted board Bianca claimed to control.
Sophie watched from the hallway.
Lucas carried one laptop bag and nothing else.
Employees pretended not to stare.
Bianca stood inside the glass conference room.
Gideon beside her.
The humiliation was deliberate.
Sophie moved toward them.
Lucas caught her arm.
“Don’t.”
“She’s enjoying this.”
“That isn’t illegal.”
“She stole your company.”
“Disputed.”
Sophie glared.
“Stop talking like Nora.”
“Start acting like her.”
That hurt because again he was right.
Lucas released her arm.
“Come on.”
They left together.
It was the first time in Sophie’s life she had seen her older brother look powerless.
He had taken over Vale House operations at twenty-nine after their father’s death.
He had raised capital.
Closed stores.
Expanded Asia.
Fought with Celeste.
Protected Sophie from financial details.
Now he could not enter the executive floor without permission from a woman their mother had allegedly tried to remove.
In the car Sophie said, “I blamed you.”
Lucas looked out the window.
“For what?”
“Mom.”
He stayed silent.
“I thought you let Bianca take over because you wanted to keep being CEO.”
He turned.
“Do you still think that?”
“I don’t know.”
He almost smiled.
“That’s progress.”
She punched his shoulder lightly.
“Don’t.”
The gesture made both of them remember the slaps.
Sophie pulled her hand away.
Lucas noticed.
“You’re afraid to touch people now?”
“Maybe that’s not terrible.”
“No.”
He looked down at his hands.
“Maybe not.”
They went to Nora’s office.
The ownership case had become urgent.
If Bianca’s vote remained effective, she could keep Lucas removed, replace more executives, and influence access to records.
Nora’s litigation partner, David Ross, laid out the problem.
“The termination document helps. The suspicious ValeSign log helps. Nora’s testimony helps. None alone automatically voids the closing.”
Sophie asked, “What do we need?”
“The alleged reinstatement must be proven invalid, or the closing otherwise shown ineffective.”
“Bianca never paid.”
Everyone turned.
Lucas had spoken quietly.
Nora frowned.
“What?”
He looked sick.
“The purchase price.”
Celeste’s share sale had been valued at $112 million.
Bianca was supposed to pay $32 million cash at closing and issue an $80 million seller note.
“Did she pay the thirty-two?” Nora asked.
“I thought so.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
Lucas took a breath.
“Vale House received a thirty-two-million-dollar capital contribution from Moretti Capital around the same time.”
Sophie stared.
“That’s not payment to Mom.”
“No.”
“What happened to it?”
“It covered working capital.”
Nora leaned forward.
“Was the purchase price ever deposited into Celeste’s account?”
“I don’t know.”
David said, “Find out.”
Bank records required subpoenas and estate authorization.
Nora, now acting for the estate in litigation after Gideon’s conflict became apparent, obtained preliminary statements.
No $32 million payment ever reached Celeste.
The seller note existed.
But something was wrong.
The issuer was not Bianca personally.
It was an acquisition vehicle called Silver Crown Holdings LLC.
Silver Crown had almost no assets.
Its guarantee came from Morrow Design IP.
The same entity receiving millions from Vale House.
Sophie stared at the structure.
“She bought Mom’s shares with money generated by charging Mom’s company.”
“Potentially,” David said.
Lucas looked grim.
“It gets worse.”
A year after Celeste died, the seller note was marked “satisfied.”
“How?”
Lucas had no answer.
The estate’s books showed no $80 million receipt.
Instead, the note disappeared through something labeled:
Strategic settlement and release.
Signed by executor:
Gideon Shaw.
Nora pushed away from the table.
“He released an eighty-million-dollar estate asset?”
“For how much?” Sophie asked.
They found the figure.
Five million.
The estate received five million dollars to release an eighty-million-dollar note.
Gideon had signed the settlement four months after Celeste died.
Lucas stood.
“I approved a company cooperation agreement connected to that settlement.”
Sophie stared.
“You what?”
“I didn’t approve the estate release. I approved Vale House providing archive licenses to Morrow as part of a broader peace agreement.”
“You gave her more intellectual property.”
“We were fighting lenders.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Because we were.”
“And every time you were afraid, you gave Bianca something.”
Lucas’s face hardened.
“You think you would have done better?”
“I would have read.”
“No.”
His voice cracked like a whip.
“You would have screamed.”
Sophie froze.
Lucas immediately regretted it.
But the truth was already in the room.
“You were twenty-five,” he continued more quietly. “Mom was dead. You could barely attend board meetings without crying. I made decisions because someone had to.”
“And you made bad ones.”
“Yes.”
That answer stopped the argument.
Lucas looked at her.
“I made bad ones.”
The confession carried more weight than defense.
He continued.
“I trusted Gideon because Dad trusted him. I trusted Bianca because Mom had once trusted her. And I believed keeping the company alive was the same thing as protecting the family.”
Sophie’s anger softened.
“I believed being angry was the same thing as protecting Mom.”
Lucas nodded.
“So she had both of us.”
They sat in silence.
Then Nora placed Celeste’s photograph between them.
“She did not hide this because she expected perfect children.”
Sophie looked at the image.
“What did she expect?”
“Children who eventually compared notes.”
The siblings looked at one another.
For the first time since the runway, they stopped fighting over who had failed Celeste more.
That evening Beckett Rowe traced the five-million-dollar estate settlement.
One million went to estate taxes and expenses.
Four million remained temporarily.
Then Gideon authorized an “executor reserve investment” in a private fund.
That fund was managed by a company tied to Silver Crown.
Most of the money eventually disappeared into investments now worth almost nothing.
Sophie stared at the flowchart.
“He drained Mom’s estate too.”
“Possibly,” Nora said.
Then the forensic accountant pointed to one final transfer.
Seven hundred fifty thousand dollars left the fund and entered an account belonging to:
Gideon Shaw.
He had labeled it a “transaction advisory fee.”
May you like
Nora looked at Lucas.
“That may be the first payment we can explain to a judge without needing a fashion degree.”
