Chapter 16 - The Day Victoria Took Control
The judge refused to accept Miguel’s statement without the device.
The blue phone was still missing.
The original penthouse server was blank.
Claire had recanted.
The trust remained frozen.
The board met on Friday.
Nathan was not invited to attend until the final fifteen minutes.
Elliott spoke first.
“Cole Meridian requires stability.”
Nathan sat quietly.
Conrad controlled three board votes directly and influenced two more through debt relationships.
Victoria owned another proxy.
The emergency resolution passed nine to six.
Elliott became interim chief executive.
Nathan remained chairman in name only.
Conrad’s merger negotiation was authorized.
When Nathan left the building, reporters surrounded him.
“Did you assault your wife?”
“Is Lily Mercer your daughter?”
“Did you misuse company funds to pay off the child’s mother?”
“Are you resigning?”
Nathan kept walking.
That evening, Grace faced her own setback.
Victoria sought a protective order barring Nathan from being near Grace or Lily outside supervised sessions, arguing Nathan’s public scandal and Grace’s “obsessive campaign” were destabilizing the child.
The family court judge did not grant everything.
But Nathan’s contact remained supervised.
Grace was furious.
Nathan was quieter.
“I gave them the weapon.”
Grace looked at him.
“The slap.”
“Yes.”
“You were protecting us.”
“And I lost control.”
Grace remembered the marble floor.
The sound.
Victoria falling.
At the time, she had been grateful.
Now she understood how one violent second could become a chain around everyone involved.
“You are not Victoria,” she said.
Nathan looked at her.
“No.”
“But don’t become convinced that motive erases action.”
“I won’t.”
The paternity judgment came two days later.
Nathan Cole was legally declared Lily’s father.
No celebration.
No champagne.
Just papers.
The judge ordered a gradual parenting plan because Lily had known Grace as her only parent for four years.
Nathan accepted every condition.
During the next supervised visit, Lily drew with crayons.
A house.
Grace.
Nathan.
A little girl.
And another woman holding a blue rectangle.
The social worker asked, “Who is that?”
Lily answered, “Victoria.”
Nathan did not ask anything.
The social worker said, “What is she holding?”
“Secret phone.”
Grace looked away.
Lily added, “She put papers in Grandpa’s box.”
Nathan’s eyes lifted.
“What Grandpa?”
The social worker immediately intervened.
“Nathan.”
He nodded.
“Sorry.”
Later, the social worker documented the spontaneous statement.
Maya read it carefully.
“Lily cannot be used as an investigator.”
“She won’t be,” Grace said.
“But the statement may support a warrant request if combined with other evidence.”
Nathan remembered Miguel’s footage.
Victoria and Elliott carrying the gray archive box.
Missing trust papers.
Blue phone deletion request.
Jordan contacted prosecutors.
This time, they listened.
A subpoena to the mobile carrier uncovered something unexpected.
The blue phone number was registered not to Victoria.
To Vesper Consulting.
Calls went to Elliott.
Graybridge.
Conrad.
And one number Jordan did not recognize.
Maya did.
“Dr. Peter Lang.”
Grace frowned.
“Who?”
Maya searched.
“Private laboratory consultant.”
Nathan’s face darkened.
“DNA?”
Grace looked at him.
Five years earlier, Victoria had claimed Nathan demanded proof.
Grace had refused the paternity test arranged through Victoria’s attorney because she did not trust it.
Now she wondered if that instinct had saved them.
Phone records showed multiple calls to Lang during Grace’s pregnancy.
Jordan said, “We need to know what they were planning.”
Grace’s stomach turned.
Then another record appeared.
A call to Dr. Lang from Victoria’s blue phone.
Twenty minutes after Nathan ordered the current DNA test.
Nathan stared.
“She tried again.”
This time the lab had been selected by Jordan, not Victoria.
The result had arrived independently.
99.99 percent.
Grace whispered, “She was trying to interfere with the test.”
Maya nodded.
“Or find out whether she could.”
Nathan’s phone rang.
Jordan answered.
His expression changed immediately.
“What?”
He listened.
Then looked at Nathan.
“The board moved the merger vote up.”
“When?”
“Monday.”
Nathan checked the calendar.
“That’s four days.”
“If Conrad wins,” Jordan said, “Hale interests gain effective control before the trust case is decided.”
Grace stared at him.
“Can we stop it?”
Jordan’s silence was answer enough.
May you like
Victoria had lost her home, her public image, and possibly her criminal case.
But somehow she was now closer than ever to owning Nathan’s company.
