Chapter 3 - THE DOCUMENT SELENE WANTED ME TO SIGN
Selene came to my office forty-eight hours later.
Neutral location.
Downtown hotel conference room.
Her attorney came.
Mine did too.
No guns.
No private rooms.
Mara had been right.
Annoying woman.
Selene sat across from me.
She looked beautiful.
That still registered.
Love does not disappear the moment evidence arrives.
Sometimes it becomes grief first.
“Why?” I asked.
Her lawyer intervened.
“Dominic—”
I looked at him.
He stopped.
Selene said:
“Marcus told me you were hiding assets.”
“From you?”
“Yes.”
“Why would that justify stealing from my office?”
“He said you planned to cancel the wedding.”
I stared.
“Did you believe him?”
She looked away.
“No.”
There it was.
“What did he offer?”
Silence.
“Selene.”
“Protection.”
“From what?”
“You.”
I almost laughed.
Instead:
“Explain.”
She said Marcus had approached her five months earlier.
He claimed my financial investigation was actually a plan to move assets outside any future marital estate.
He told her I had done similar things to former partners.
False.
Then he showed her draft documents.
The same forged marital trust.
“If I helped him secure the originals, he said the trust could be executed before the wedding.”
“Executed by whom?”
“Your electronic signature.”
My face cooled.
Selene continued too quickly.
“He said you already approved it verbally.”
“You believed that?”
“No.”
Again.
At least she had stopped pretending.
“What did you get?”
“Twenty percent of the trust income.”
There it was.
Money.
Not fear.
Not manipulation alone.
Choice.
“How much?”
“Potentially twelve million a year.”
My attorney stopped writing.
Even he was impressed.
I looked at Selene.
“You were going to marry me while stealing voting control.”
Tears filled her eyes.
“I did love you.”
“Past tense?”
She flinched.
Good.
Then:
“I thought once everything settled—”
“Everything.”
I leaned back.
“Interesting word.”
She reached toward me.
I moved my hand.
Her face changed.
“Dominic.”
“No.”
That was all.
The engagement ended in that room.
No screaming.
No broken glass.
No dramatic ring thrown across the table.
Selene removed it.
Placed it down.
For a moment, she looked less like a conspirator than a woman who had finally understood the price of a decision she thought would never become real.
I still did not forgive her.
Both things could coexist.
Outside, Gabriel asked:
“Now Marcus?”
“Not yet.”
He groaned.
“You’re becoming patient.”
“I hate it.”
“Everyone does.”
The stolen drive had told Marcus one important lie.
It contained a decoy file indicating that I planned to sign a revised ownership package five days before the wedding.
That filing would require three things:
My electronic signature token.
The corporate seal.
And a board resolution.
Selene already had images of the seal.
Marcus could forge the resolution.
The electronic token remained inside my possession.
Or so he thought.
We created a monitored duplicate.
Then we waited.
Three days later, Marcus requested a private dinner.
Finally.
He sat across from me in one of my hotels.
“You look tired.”
“So do you.”
He smiled.
“I’m worried about the wedding.”
“Why?”
“Selene.”
I almost admired the nerve.
“What about her?”
“She may not be trustworthy.”
I stared.
Marcus continued:
“I've discovered some irregular communications.”
“With whom?”
“Unknown parties.”
He was preparing to sacrifice her.
Of course.
“What do you suggest?”
“Postpone.”
“You introduced us.”
“People change.”
True.
Then Marcus slid a folder across the table.
“Until this is resolved, I recommend signing updated governance protections.”
There it was.
I opened it.
Board resolution.
Emergency transfer provisions.
Voting trust.
All forged around a legitimate restructuring framework.
Mara had been right about the seal.
Same wrong spacing.
I looked up.
“You prepared this?”
“Yes.”
“You personally?”
“My office.”
“Anyone else?”
He hesitated.
“No.”
Lie.
Good.
I closed the folder.
“I'll think about it.”
Marcus smiled.
“Of course.”
Then:
“You always were cautious.”
I almost laughed.
Fourteen years and he still misunderstood me.
I had not been cautious.
I had been arrogant.
I trusted people until something forced me not to.
Those are not the same thing.
As Marcus stood, he said:
“One more thing.”
“Yes?”
“That staff woman.”
“Mara?”
“Her daughter embarrassed Selene.”
My expression cooled.
Marcus continued:
“You might consider terminating them.”
There it was again.
People he considered insignificant.
Disposable.
The kind of people nobody expected to notice anything.
I smiled.
“No.”
He looked surprised.
Then left.
I called Mara afterward.
“What?”
“I need you to review another packet.”
“Now?”
“Yes.”
She sighed.
“I have to pick Lily up at seven.”
“I'll send a car.”
“No.”
I closed my eyes.
“Right.”
She arrived at 7:40.
By her own car.
With Lily.
The babysitter had canceled again.
Lily sat in the corner drawing while Mara reviewed the pages.
Ten minutes later, she tapped one.
“This one is worse.”
“How?”
“The notary block.”
“What about it?”
“The notary listed here died last year.”
I stared.
Marcus had become sloppy.
Or desperate.
Mara looked toward Lily.
Then back at me.
“He thinks nobody reads the boring parts.”
May you like
I nodded.
“So did I.”
