Chapter 4 - The Notebook Grant Never Opened
Grant ran upstairs.
Camille stood beside the bed holding her phone.
“What happened?”
She turned the screen toward him.
A photograph showed her entering Holloway Financial six years earlier.
Long before she claimed she had first met Grant.
The caption read:
CAMILLE FOSTER — CONSULTANT ACCESS LOG, 2020.
Grant stared at her.
“You knew Serena.”
Camille’s face changed.
Only slightly.
But enough.
“Grant—”
“You knew her.”
“I knew who she was.”
He held up the notebook.
Camille went pale.
“Where did you get that?”
That was the wrong answer.
Grant stepped back.
“You’ve seen it.”
“No.”
“You just asked where I got it.”
“Because it’s obviously Serena’s.”
“Get dressed.”
“Grant.”
“Now.”
Camille folded her arms.
“You’re really going to defend the woman who hid a billionaire father from you?”
“This isn’t about Dominic.”
“It’s entirely about Dominic.”
Grant watched her.
For months, Camille had told him Serena was holding him back.
That Serena lacked sophistication.
That a man in Grant’s position needed a partner who understood public life.
Camille had always seemed to know exactly which insecurity to touch.
Now every conversation felt contaminated.
“What did you take from Serena?”
Camille laughed.
“You think I stole forty-three models?”
“I didn’t ask that.”
Silence.
Grant stepped closer.
“What did you take?”
Camille’s expression hardened.
“Information.”
“What information?”
“Enough to know your wife was lying to you.”
Grant looked at the notebook.
“About her father?”
“About everything.”
Camille walked toward the closet.
“Serena wasn’t some innocent housewife. She was a Moretti. She married you under another name. She watched you build a company from her ideas and said nothing. Ask yourself why.”
Grant hated that the question landed.
Why had Serena remained silent?
Why let him take credit?
Why refuse everything in the divorce?
Camille pulled on a jacket.
“Because she was waiting.”
“For what?”
“For you to become valuable enough.”
Grant’s eyes narrowed.
“To whom?”
Camille smiled without warmth.
“The Morettis.”
At the Hudson estate, Serena confronted Adrian.
He stood in the library with a glass of bourbon.
“You leaked my notebooks.”
“No.”
“You accessed the archive.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Adrian set down his glass.
“Because Holloway Financial is collapsing.”
“That’s Grant’s problem.”
“It becomes ours when your research is attached to our family.”
“You had no right.”
“I protected you.”
Serena laughed softly.
“That phrase has caused more damage in this family than any enemy ever did.”
Adrian approached.
“You disappeared for eight years.”
“I got married.”
“You abandoned your responsibilities.”
“I chose my life.”
“You chose Grant Holloway.”
The contempt in his voice made Serena stop.
“This isn’t about the archive.”
Adrian looked away.
“What is it about?”
He said nothing.
Serena remembered childhood summers with Adrian. He had been more brother than cousin.
But after her mother died, everything changed.
Dominic named Serena beneficiary of a controlling trust.
Adrian became colder.
Serena had assumed it was grief.
Perhaps she had been wrong.
“You wanted the company,” Serena said.
Adrian smiled faintly.
“There it is.”
“Dad never promised me the company.”
“He didn’t need to.”
“I left.”
“And somehow everything still waited for you.”
Serena studied him.
“You leaked the notebooks to force me back.”
“I exposed the truth.”
“No. You created a crisis.”
Adrian’s phone vibrated.
He glanced at it.
Serena saw the name before he turned the screen away.
Camille.
Her stomach dropped.
“How long?”
Adrian froze.
Serena repeated it.
“How long have you been working with Camille?”
He said nothing.
That was answer enough.
Serena backed toward the door.
Adrian followed.
“You don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
“Camille was supposed to watch Grant.”
“For what?”
“To make sure he didn’t discover who you were.”
Serena stared.
“You put her near my husband?”
“I didn’t put her in his bed.”
The words struck like a slap.
Adrian immediately regretted them.
Serena’s face became still.
“When did she start?”
“Six years ago.”
Two years into Serena’s marriage.
Long before the affair.
Long before the divorce.
“Why?”
Adrian looked toward the windows.
“Because Nathan Cole disappeared.”
Serena felt cold.
“What does Nathan have to do with Grant?”
“Everything.”
Adrian walked to a locked cabinet.
He removed a small envelope.
Inside was a flash drive.
“Nathan contacted me three days before he vanished.”
“Why you?”
“He didn’t trust Dominic.”
Serena stared at him.
“He said someone was using your research to move money through Holloway Financial.”
“My models didn’t move money.”
“No. But someone modified them.”
“Who?”
Adrian handed her the drive.
“I never found out.”
Serena took it.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Nathan told me not to.”
“And you obeyed a missing lawyer for six years?”
“He gave me a condition.”
“What condition?”
Adrian swallowed.
“If Grant ever divorced you, I was supposed to give you this.”
Serena looked at the drive.
Her phone rang.
Grant.
For the first time since the divorce, she answered.
“What?”
Grant’s voice was strained.
“I found your notebook.”
Serena closed her eyes.
“Which one?”
“The black one.”
Silence.
“Serena, Camille knew about you years before I met her.”
“I know.”
Grant stopped.
“How?”
“I’m standing beside the man who hired her.”
Adrian’s face hardened.
Grant said, “Who?”
Before Serena could answer, the lights in the Moretti library went out.
A security alarm sounded.
Adrian grabbed Serena’s arm.
“Don’t move.”
Something crashed downstairs.
Dominic shouted from the hall.
Then the locked library door slowly opened.
A man stood on the other side.
Serena recognized the coat first.
Then the scar above his eyebrow.
The man who had disappeared five years earlier stepped into the room.
Nathan Cole looked directly at Serena.
May you like
And said, “Your father is not the person who betrayed you.”
Then he pointed behind her...
