Chapter 10
A message appeared.
Caroline, did you cancel my card?
I stared at it.
A second message followed.
This is childish.
Then a third.
Khloe and I are trying to buy her ring.
I turned the phone over.
“Would you like that number blocked?”
Carter asked.
“Yes.”
He picked up the phone.
A strange relief moved through me.
Not satisfaction.
Not vengeance.
Just relief.
Harrison was no longer my responsibility.
The next morning, my corporate profile went public.
At 9:17 a.m., the first financial network identified me as founder and ultimate controlling shareholder of Vance Global Holdings.
At 9:43, a second outlet published an analysis of the group’s holdings.
At 10:06, my communications director forwarded a headline mentioning the thirty listed companies.
At 10:21, the estimated figure appeared.
Ten billion dollars.
By noon, reporters were requesting interviews.
By two, business magazines were circulating photographs from conferences I had attended years earlier.
By three, someone found an old photograph of Harrison standing beside me at a charity dinner.
That was when my personal phone began vibrating.
Friends.
Acquaintances.
Former colleagues.
People who had not spoken to me in years.
And eventually, from a number I did not recognize, one message that required no signature.
What the hell is this?
I read it once.
Then deleted it.
Another arrived.
Ten billion?
Then another.
Caroline, answer me.
Another.
Were you hiding this from me?
I almost responded.
My thumb hovered above the keyboard.
I wanted to type everything.
You had the statements.
You received the disclosures.
You mocked the reports.
You called my work an obsession.
You told me to cash out.
You told me finding a good man mattered more than building an empire.
But explanations were another kind of labor.
I had done enough labor for Harrison Cole.
I blocked the number.
Ten minutes later, Carter entered my office.
“Problem?”
“No.”
He glanced at my phone.
“Mr.
Cole?”
“Yes.”
Carter paused.
“Should I instruct reception to route any calls from him to legal?”
“Yes.”
He turned to leave.
“Carter.”
He stopped.
“Do not antagonize him.”
“I never would.”
“I mean it.”
“So do I.”
I nodded.
Harrison had made his choice.
I had no interest in punishing him for it.
I only intended to stop protecting him from the consequences.
There was a difference.
I did not yet realize how quickly the rest of the world would make that difference public.
Chapter 3: The Empire He Called A Hobby
For the next three weeks, I rebuilt my routine around a life in which no one was waiting at home to resent me.