Chapter 9
Then Dominic had called.
He had invited me to dinner.
I had left the meeting before reading the final pages.
“Why would my interest be held in trust?” I asked.
“Because you were concerned about your family.”
“My family?”
“Your mother was still alive. You worried that if anything happened to you, the shares might be sold or divided before the projects were secure.”
I pressed my fingers against my temple.
My mother had died six years ago. At the time, I had been living in the penthouse with Dominic, planning a memorial service and trying to manage a grief I had not known how to express.
No one had ever mentioned a company.
No one had told me that my mother had been named as a beneficiary.
Richard seemed to understand the question before I asked it.
“Your mother’s interest was not financial ownership. She was listed as a protected beneficiary until your twenty-fifth birthday.”
“I was twenty-eight.”
“Yes. The structure was created after your father’s estate was settled.”
I absorbed that in silence.
My father had died when I was twenty-four, leaving behind debts, a small house in Evanston, and a complicated collection of unpaid obligations. I had spent the next few years rebuilding my life. Richard had helped me find work. He had introduced me to people who treated me as capable instead of fragile.
But I had never understood how much more he had done.
“Why didn’t you remind me?” I asked.
“Because you told me you wanted a clean break.”
“From the company?”
“From everything connected to it.”
I looked toward the stage, where the award still stood beneath the lights.
“I said I wanted a life that wasn’t defined by work.”
“You said you wanted to be known for something other than what you could produce.”
His words found a place in me that was still tender.
After marrying Dominic, I had slowly abandoned every part of my old life. At first, it had seemed temporary. I would return to the firm once the wedding settled down. Then after we moved into the penthouse. Then after Dominic’s latest expansion.
Eventually, I stopped making promises to myself.
The folder felt heavier in my hands.
“What does this have to do with Dominic?”
Richard’s gaze shifted briefly toward the bar.
“He has been acquiring properties through Vale Development Group for years. Some of those properties were transferred from the original company.”