Chapter 4 - The Boardroom
Malcolm left the hospital under escort.
He was not arrested.
Yet.
Sarah warned Genevieve that suspicion was not proof.
Genevieve hated that sentence.
At 8:00 the following morning, Bellamy Biotechnologies held its emergency board meeting.
Genevieve attended by video from the hospital.
Clara slept beside her.
Julian appeared from his attorney’s office.
He looked rested.
Genevieve looked exhausted.
That was intentional.
His lawyer immediately emphasized it.
“Mrs. Hart gave birth less than forty-eight hours ago.”
Genevieve interrupted.
“And yet your client scheduled a billion-dollar corporate vote during my recovery.”
Silence.
Arthur almost smiled.
NorthStar offered $1.2 billion for Bellamy Medical Systems.
Arthur opposed the transaction because he believed NorthStar intended to dismantle research operations and resell patents.
Julian supported it.
Genevieve finally understood why.
If the deal closed, her trust would receive roughly $86 million in liquid proceeds.
Under the power of attorney Julian had tried to force her to sign, he could manage those proceeds.
This was not merely about company control.
It was about converting protected corporate wealth into accessible cash.
Sarah presented the hospital recording.
Julian’s voice filled the boardroom.
Once she signs, we control everything.
Several directors looked sick.
Julian’s lawyer objected that context was missing.
Genevieve laughed.
“What context makes that sentence acceptable?”
The vote was postponed indefinitely.
First power reversal.
Julian’s plan failed.
But he struck back immediately.
He filed for temporary emergency custody of Clara.
His petition alleged Genevieve was mentally unstable, physically incapacitated, and under the coercive influence of Arthur.
Genevieve read it from her hospital bed.
“He’s trying to take her anyway.”
Sarah nodded.
“Because he needs leverage.”
The petition attached photographs.
Genevieve asleep while pregnant.
Genevieve crying.
Genevieve holding prescription medication.
She recognized the bottle.
Anti-nausea medication.
The caption called it “unidentified medication.”
“This is insane.”
“It’s litigation.”
Sarah’s expression hardened.
“We answer with evidence.”
Genevieve was discharged that afternoon.
Not to the marital home.
Sarah advised against it.
She and Clara moved into Arthur’s guarded estate outside Bryn Mawr.
Genevieve hated needing protection.
But when she arrived, she discovered Julian had already visited.
Her childhood bedroom had been searched.
Drawers open.
Closet disturbed.
A floorboard near the window lifted.
“What was he looking for?”
Arthur knew.
“Your father’s files.”
Genevieve turned.
“What files?”
Arthur finally told her.
Thomas Bellamy had kept a private investigation into Malcolm Pierce.
After Thomas died, Arthur found part of it.
He burned it.
Genevieve stared at him.
“You what?”
“I was grieving.”
“You destroyed Dad’s evidence?”
“I thought he had become obsessed.”
“Because Malcolm told you that?”
Arthur closed his eyes.
“Yes.”
Genevieve stepped away.
“You keep saying you protected me.”
“I tried.”
“You protected Malcolm.”
The words hurt him.
She did not take them back.
That night Genevieve searched the room herself.
Behind the lifted floorboard she found nothing.
Then Clara began crying.
Genevieve picked her up and paced.
Near the old bookcase, she noticed one volume pushed backward.
A childhood copy of The Secret Garden.
Inside the cover, in Thomas’s handwriting:
GEN — IF GRANDFATHER EVER TELLS YOU I WAS PARANOID, ASK HIM WHO BENEFITED.
Genevieve’s hands shook.
A small brass key had been taped beneath the inscription.
Arthur stared.
“I never saw that.”
“What does it open?”
He did not know.
But Genevieve remembered something from childhood.
Her father had rented a storage locker near his office.
Sarah traced it.
The facility still existed.
The account had been prepaid through a trust established before Thomas’s death.
Locker 214.
The brass key opened it.
Inside were six banker’s boxes.
Genevieve lifted the lid from the first.
Westbridge Holdings.
Malcolm Pierce.
NorthStar predecessors.
And photographs of Julian.
Genevieve froze.
The photographs were dated eleven years earlier.
She had met Julian only six years ago.
Sarah picked up one image.
Julian, younger, stood beside Malcolm outside a Manhattan restaurant.
On the back, Thomas had written:
MALCOLM’S NEW RUNNER. WATCH HIM.
May you like
Genevieve’s stomach turned.
Her father had known Julian five years before Genevieve supposedly met him by chance.
