Chapter 13 - Elena’s Price
“Tell me.”
They stood in the library.
Lily was upstairs.
Maria had closed the door.
Elena stared at the declaration.
“I asked for money.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“How much?”
“Ten million.”
“So Victoria’s telling the truth.”
“About that sentence.”
“Why?”
Elena’s jaw tightened.
“Because I was desperate.”
Daniel laughed once.
“Everyone is desperate when they make the worst choices of their lives.”
“Yes.”
“Explain.”
Elena paced.
“After you signed the affidavit, my lawyer told me the custody fight could last years. Grant had frozen my company compensation. My reputation was destroyed. I believed I needed enough money to leave, hire counsel, and fight from somewhere they couldn’t control.”
“So you offered silence for ten million?”
“I told Victoria if they paid me, I would stop pursuing the company records.”
Daniel stared.
“That is blackmail.”
“I know what it looked like.”
“What it looked like?”
Elena turned.
“I was trying to buy time.”
“With stolen money?”
“With their money.”
“It was company money!”
“I didn’t take it.”
“Because they refused?”
Elena’s face crumpled.
“No.”
Daniel stopped.
“What happened?”
“Victoria agreed.”
He stared.
“She agreed to pay you?”
“Yes.”
“Then why didn’t you take it?”
“Because Thomas told me that accepting it could destroy my credibility forever.”
Daniel laughed bitterly.
“Your credibility is already destroyed if Victoria has the message.”
“I know.”
For the first time since returning, Elena looked truly defeated.
“I told you I made terrible choices.”
Daniel felt betrayed again.
But this time he recognized the reflex.
He wanted one clean innocent person.
There wasn’t one.
“Do you have the full exchange?”
Elena shook her head.
“Thomas might.”
Thomas did.
His archive contained Elena’s recorded meeting with Victoria.
Elena said:
“Ten million. You want me out? Then give me enough to fight you when I’m ready.”
Victoria replied:
“So this is extortion.”
Elena said:
“Call it whatever helps you sleep.”
Victoria agreed in principle.
Then Elena added:
“I won’t sign anything saying the fraud was mine.”
That mattered.
So did the fact Elena never accepted money.
But Victoria’s declaration was still damaging.
At the Delaware hearing two days later, Grant’s attorneys portrayed Daniel and Elena as colluding former spouses trying to derail a legitimate merger.
Daniel’s counsel showed evidence that the voting certificate was executed while Daniel was overseas.
Sterling Vale declined to support Grant’s request for expedited validation.
That stunned Grant.
Carter Wren appeared by video and testified:
“Sterling Vale cannot rely on disputed voting commitments or undisclosed side compensation.”
Grant’s expression finally cracked.
The court declined to bless the proxy.
Victory.
Temporary.
Outside the courthouse, Daniel turned to Elena.
“We bought time.”
She nodded.
Then federal agents approached Grant.
They did not arrest him.
They served subpoenas.
Company servers.
Personal financial records.
Alder Crest.
Ridgeline.
Grant looked across the plaza at Daniel.
For nineteen years they had called each other brothers.
Grant walked toward him.
“You really think you’re the hero now?”
Daniel said nothing.
Grant smiled.
“Ask Elena who first suggested using your father’s dirty projects against you.”
Elena stiffened.
Daniel noticed.
Grant continued.
“She came to me before I went to Victoria.”
“That’s a lie,” Elena said.
“Is it?”
Grant walked away.
Daniel turned.
“Elena?”
She looked furious.
“I went to Grant because he was CFO.”
“When?”
“When I first found the vendor irregularities.”
“And you told him about my father?”
“I told him I had found old questionable payments.”
Daniel stared.
“You gave him the information that connected his father to mine.”
Elena’s face fell.
“I didn’t know his history.”
“But that helped him.”
“Yes.”
Another consequence.
Another mistake.
That evening Elena packed a suitcase.
Daniel found her in the guest room.
“What are you doing?”
“Leaving.”
“Why?”
“Because Lily needs stability, and every hour I’m here something else from my past explodes.”
“You think disappearing again creates stability?”
Elena froze.
Daniel regretted the cruelty immediately.
“I shouldn’t have said that.”
“No. You should.”
She sat on the bed.
“I don’t know how to stay.”
Daniel leaned against the door.
“I don’t know how to trust.”
For a long moment they simply looked at each other.
Then Lily appeared.
She saw the suitcase.
Her face collapsed.
“No.”
Elena stood.
“Lily—”
“No!”
She ran to the suitcase and pushed it over.
“You said you came back!”
“I’m not leaving you.”
“That’s what leaving means!”
Elena knelt.
“I thought maybe staying in another house would be easier.”
“For who?”
Elena had no answer.
Lily backed away.
“You adults always say you’re doing things for me when you mean you’re scared.”
Daniel looked at Elena.
Elena looked at him.
Their seven-year-old daughter had understood the family better than either parent.
Elena unpacked.
But later that night, Daniel received a call from Rebecca.
The board had voted.
Grant had secured enough support to call a special resolution removing Daniel as chairman pending the investigation.
His own cousin had voted against him.
Grant now controlled Mercer Development operationally.
And his first act was to terminate Rachel Dunne’s access to company-provided records.
His second was to announce that the shareholder vote would proceed.
His third was personal.
Mercer Development filed suit against Daniel and Elena for alleged theft and misuse of confidential corporate documents.
Elena read the complaint.
“They’re going to bury us in litigation.”
Daniel looked at the oak tree outside.
“No.”
May you like
For the first time, he sounded certain.
“They’re going to try.”
