Chapter 13 - The Counterattack
The complaint was seventy-three pages.
Breach of fiduciary duty.
Misappropriation of confidential information.
Interference with the Blackridge transaction.
Violation of corporate policies.
Demand for damages exceeding fifty million dollars.
Emily read the number twice.
“They’re suing you for fifty million?”
Victoria sat in Nina’s office.
“More, potentially.”
Daniel shook his head.
“This is intimidation.”
“It’s also litigation,” Nina said. “And some claims are not frivolous.”
Emily looked at Victoria.
“What did you do?”
Victoria hated the question because there was an answer.
After being suspended, she had downloaded several board emails from a personal backup account created years earlier.
Some concerned Blackridge.
“Were you authorized?” Nina asked.
“No.”
“Why did you do it?”
“I thought they’d erase evidence.”
“Was that reasonable?”
“Yes.”
“Was copying the files permitted?”
“No.”
Emily leaned back.
For the first time, Victoria saw the complexity of standing beside someone who had actually made mistakes.
Not forged-signature mistakes.
Real ones.
Nina continued.
“Charles will use every legitimate error to make the illegitimate conduct look like a business dispute.”
Victoria nodded.
“I know.”
There was more.
Rosewood’s board formally terminated Victoria as CEO that afternoon.
Not suspended.
Terminated.
The company issued a statement citing “serious governance concerns.”
Business networks repeated it for hours.
Victoria watched herself discussed on television as a disgruntled executive attacking her own company over an inheritance dispute.
Jonathan appeared at a press briefing as general counsel.
“My wife and I are currently separated,” he said. “I will not discuss personal matters. The company, however, must defend itself.”
Emily shut off the television.
“I hate him.”
Victoria stared at the dark screen.
“I loved him yesterday.”
“You can hate him tomorrow.”
Despite everything, Victoria laughed.
It sounded broken.
By evening, Blackridge Capital announced it was continuing negotiations.
Charles’s strategy was obvious.
Complete the sale quickly.
Cash out the family holdings.
Complicate Emily’s attempt to restore her ownership.
Nina filed two actions.
First, an estate and trust proceeding challenging the fraudulent release and distribution.
Second, a corporate action seeking to rescind the stock cancellation, impose a constructive trust on the disputed shares and distributions, and block extraordinary transactions pending review.
Rosewood responded aggressively.
The company argued Emily had waited twenty years.
Statute of limitations.
Laches.
Ratification.
Reliance.
Loss of evidence.
Death or fading memories of witnesses.
Nina countered that the fraud had been actively concealed and that key wrongdoers had continued benefiting from it.
A judge scheduled an emergency hearing.
Then Judith Kline resurfaced.
On Charles’s side.
Her affidavit stated:
I notarized the signatures because I believed all signatories had authorized them. Any statement suggesting otherwise was the product of confusion and pressure from Victoria Rosewood and her investigators.
Emily nearly threw the affidavit across the room.
“She lied.”
“She’s scared,” Victoria said.
“Fear doesn’t make lies harmless.”
Victoria looked at her.
“I know.”
That evening, a second blow arrived.
Jonathan submitted his own sworn declaration.
Victoria read it in silence.
He described conversations during their marriage in which, he claimed, Victoria had acknowledged Emily’s inheritance settlement and accepted that Emily “wanted nothing further to do with the Rosewood family.”
That much was true.
But then came the poison.
Jonathan claimed Victoria had once said:
Emily made her choice, and I benefited. I’m not giving it back.
Victoria stood.
“I never said that.”
Nina looked at her.
“Never?”
“No.”
“Anything similar?”
Victoria searched memory.
There had been arguments.
Family dinners.
Moments of bitterness.
Once, after Charles compared Victoria unfavorably to Emily, she had snapped that Emily was gone and she was the one doing the work.
But not this.
Not giving it back.
“He twisted something.”
Nina nodded.
“That is what we’ll argue.”
Emily was staring at Victoria.
“You really never said it?”
Victoria looked at her sister.
“No.”
Emily hesitated.
That hesitation hurt.
“You believe him?”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore.”
Victoria went still.
Emily stood.
“For twenty years, every document said I signed something I didn’t sign.”
“I know.”
“Now your husband says you said something you say you didn’t say.”
“Yes.”
“Do you understand why evidence matters more to me than trust?”
Victoria’s anger rose before she could stop it.
“I lost my job, my marriage, and possibly fifty million dollars because I chose to help you.”
Emily recoiled.
The moment the words left Victoria’s mouth, she regretted them.
There it was.
The ledger.
The cost.
As though helping Emily had been a favor.
Emily’s face became cold.
“You chose to tell the truth.”
“I know.”
“Don’t send me the bill.”
She walked out.
Daniel followed.
Victoria sank into her chair.
Nina did not comfort her.
“You made a mistake.”
“I know.”
“No. I mean strategically too.”
Victoria looked up.
“Charles wants to make this about two angry sisters fighting over money.”
Nina pointed toward the door Emily had closed.
“Don’t help him.”
That night, Victoria returned alone to the penthouse.
Jonathan had removed most of his clothes.
His wedding photograph remained on the mantel.
Victoria turned it face down.
At midnight, her phone buzzed.
A message from Sophie.
She had never texted Victoria before.
MOM IS CRYING.
A second message followed.
I THINK SHE THINKS YOU’RE LEAVING TOO.
Victoria stared at the words.
Twenty years ago, Emily had believed Victoria chose Charles.
Tonight, after one cruel sentence, Victoria had made her sister feel abandoned again.
She grabbed her coat.
Then a third message arrived.
A photograph.
Someone had left a deep-red rose on the windshield of Daniel’s truck.
Attached was a note.
TAKE THE TWELVE MILLION.
May you like
Victoria’s guilt vanished beneath fear.
Charles’s settlement offer had just become a threat.
