Chapter 2 - CLAIRE’S LETTER
Grace packed a bag that night.
I found her in her room.
“No.”
She stopped folding.
Then looked at me.
I closed my eyes.
“Bad start.”
“Very.”
I tried again.
“Why are you leaving?”
“Because your mother thinks I’m trying to become Noah’s mother.”
“You aren't.”
“I know.”
“Then stay.”
She looked tired.
“Adrian.”
The use of my name changed the room.
She rarely used it.
“I’ve been here almost three years.”
“Yes.”
“You never once made me feel unsafe.”
That should have sounded like praise.
It didn’t.
“Until tonight?”
“Tonight I learned people in this house have been writing things about me.”
The altered childcare reports.
I had already seen three.
One said Grace had encouraged “maternal substitution language”.
False.
Another said she restricted Vanessa’s access to Noah.
False.
A third described me as absent from daily parenting.
Painfully closer to truth.
Grace continued:
“I need to know what else exists.”
“So do I.”
“Then investigate.”
“I will.”
“But I’m taking Noah to the guest wing tonight.”
I frowned.
“You?”
“He asked me to stay.”
Of course.
“But tomorrow?”
She looked at me.
“Tomorrow we decide based on what’s safest for him.”
Not what I wanted.
Not what she wanted.
Him.
I nodded.
Then remembered the box.
Claire’s box.
I went to the nursery after midnight.
Gray elephant.
Letters.
The one sentence I had never shown Grace.
If another woman ever loves our boy enough to make him feel safe, don’t punish either of them because I had to leave first.
I sat on the floor.
Then found something beneath the paper lining.
A second envelope.
ADRIAN — ABOUT THE TRUST
My pulse changed.
I opened it.
Claire wrote:
My shares go to Noah. You vote them while you are capable and willing. If something happens to you, do not let either family use our son as a bridge to control the company.
Then:
The guardian of Noah’s shares must never be appointed for convenience.
I read the trust copy.
Noah owned 31 percent of Vale Coastal Holdings through Claire.
I knew that.
What I had not remembered was the emergency clause.
If I became legally incapacitated, removed as trustee or unable to serve, an interim family guardian could vote Noah’s shares for up to 180 days.
Current first nominee?
My mother.
Margaret Vale.
Second signature required for certain extraordinary transactions after my remarriage?
My spouse.
Vanessa.
I stared at the paper.
Then called my attorney.
At 1:19 a.m.
He answered.
People who work for men like me answer.
I disliked that thought suddenly.
“Adrian?”
“Who drafted the Hart Coast transaction?”
Pause.
“Which part?”
My stomach tightened.
“There’s more than one part?”
Silence.
Then:
“We need to talk in person.”
May you like
Bad.
Very bad.
