Chapter 6 - The Choice My Parents Never Expected
The woman’s name was Catherine Vale.
My aunt.
My father’s younger sister.
A woman I had not seen since I was fourteen.
According to Dad, Catherine had stolen money from the family and disappeared overseas.
According to Grandma’s records, I was beginning to suspect that explanation was incomplete.
“Why is she there?” I asked.
Mom sat down slowly.
“Because she owns shares.”
Samuel turned.
“No.”
Mom looked at him.
“Eleanor gave her ten percent.”
Samuel frowned.
“I never saw that transfer.”
“It was separate.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I witnessed it.”
Another family secret.
At that point, I almost admired the efficiency.
“How many ownership surprises can one company have?” Charlotte asked.
Nathan gave a tired laugh.
“Apparently all of them.”
Mom looked at me.
“Catherine left after fighting with Richard about the Oakland project.”
The same project tied to the old trust misuse.
“What actually happened?”
“Catherine discovered he had used your assets.”
I stared at her.
“She knew?”
“Yes.”
“And Dad told us she stole?”
Mom nodded.
“He said she threatened the family.”
“No,” Samuel whispered. “She threatened him.”
Mom looked at the floor.
Grandma had not been the only person protecting me.
I had spent twenty-four years believing my aunt was a thief.
Dad had rewritten her role because truth was dangerous to him.
My phone rang.
Elaine.
I answered.
“Victoria, you need to get here.”
“What’s happening?”
“Your aunt just challenged Richard’s authority to call the vote.”
I looked at Mom.
“Why?”
“Catherine claims she has proxy rights from Eleanor’s estate.”
Samuel stood.
“That’s impossible.”
Elaine continued.
“She has documents.”
“Real?”
“I don’t know.”
“What does Dad say?”
“He’s threatening to sue everyone.”
That sounded real.
“We’re coming.”
Alexander already had the car ready.
The ballroom had mostly emptied by then.
Charlotte refused to stay behind.
“It’s my family too.”
Nathan came with her.
Mom hesitated.
I looked at her.
“You don’t have to.”
“Yes.”
She lifted her chin.
“I do.”
Twenty minutes later, we entered a private conference room in a financial tower near Embarcadero Center.
Dad stood at the head of the table.
His jacket was off.
Tie loosened.
For the first time in my life, he looked like a man who could lose.
Beside Theodore sat three directors.
At the far end was Catherine.
She turned when I entered.
I remembered her instantly.
Same dark green eyes as Grandma.
Same way of studying people before speaking.
“Victoria.”
My throat tightened.
“Aunt Catherine.”
Dad slapped a folder closed.
“This meeting is private.”
I looked at the directors.
“I’m an owner.”
“Minority.”
“Maybe.”
That silenced him.
Catherine smiled faintly.
“You sound like Eleanor.”
Dad pointed at her.
“Don’t.”
She ignored him.
“I wondered when you’d find the trust.”
“You knew?”
“For years.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Her smile disappeared.
“Because your grandmother asked me not to.”
That answer hurt.
“Why?”
“She wanted you to build a life that wasn’t organized around saving this company.”
I looked at Dad.
He would have hated that.
Catherine continued.
“She knew Richard would eventually create his own crisis.”
Dad laughed.
“You’ve been waiting twenty years to enjoy this.”
“No.”
Catherine’s voice stayed calm.
“I’ve been waiting twenty years for you to stop blaming other people for choices you made.”
Theodore cleared his throat.
“This family therapy is fascinating, but there is a transaction pending.”
Nathan looked at him.
“There shouldn’t be.”
Theodore’s face hardened.
“Nathan.”
“No.”
Nathan stood beside Charlotte.
“You knew Richard was hiding debt.”
“I knew the company was distressed.”
“You knew the wedding was being used to preserve appearances?”
Theodore did not answer.
Nathan nodded.
“That’s enough.”
“You are emotional.”
“I got married six hours ago. I’m allowed.”
Charlotte squeezed his hand.
Theodore looked at her.
“I never intended to harm you.”
Charlotte’s face became surprisingly cold.
“My father said the same thing.”
That shut him up.
Catherine slid a document toward me.
“Ten percent.”
I read it.
Her ownership was real.
“And the proxy?”
“Grandma gave me temporary voting authority over another ten percent if Richard attempted a sale during an unresolved trust dispute.”
Samuel leaned over it.
“My God.”
Dad stared at Catherine.
“You think you can take this from me?”
She looked sad.
“That sentence is your entire problem.”
He blinked.
“You never understood that stewardship wasn’t ownership.”
I looked at the directors.
“What happens now?”
Elaine answered.
“The sale cannot pass tonight.”
Dad’s shoulders sagged.
Not dramatically.
Just enough.
Theodore closed his folder.
“Then my offer is withdrawn.”
Dad rounded on him.
“We have a signed letter.”
“Nonbinding.”
“You son of a—”
“Richard,” Mom said.
Everyone turned.
She walked toward him.
For the first time all night, Dad looked relieved to see her.
“Margaret.”
Then she removed her wedding ring.
His relief disappeared.
She placed it on the conference table.
The sound was tiny.
Still, everyone heard it.
“Go home,” he whispered.
“No.”
“Not here.”
“Exactly here.”
His face twisted.
“You’re leaving me now?”
“I don’t know.”
She looked at the ring.
“I know I’m not protecting you from this.”
Dad stared at her.
“Thirty-nine years.”
“Yes.”
“You throw away thirty-nine years because of one business mistake?”
Mom’s face changed.
“No, Richard.”
She looked at me.
“Because I laughed when you poured wine on our daughter.”
He looked down.
Finally.
Actually looked down.
At his hands.
I expected an excuse.
None came.
The room stayed silent.
My phone buzzed.
Marcus checked his at the same moment.
He looked at me.
“The trustees ruled.”
Dad raised his head.
I opened the email.
The language was formal.
Dense.
But the result was simple.
Trigger confirmed.
Control transferred.
Effective immediately.
I now held voting control of Hayes Advisory and, through it, Hayes Development.
Dad sat down.
He did not speak.
I thought I would feel triumphant.
I did not.
I felt tired.
Catherine watched me.
“So,” she said softly, “what will you do?”
Everyone looked at me.
Dad most of all.
There were a hundred ways I could punish him.
Remove him.
Sell the company.
Rename it.
Expose every detail publicly.
For years, I had imagined power as the ability to finally make him feel what I felt.
Now that I had it, revenge seemed strangely small.
“I want a forensic audit,” I said.
Marcus nodded.
“Immediate.”
“All disputed guarantees frozen.”
“Yes.”
“No sale until we understand the actual financial position.”
Elaine nodded.
Dad stared at me.
“And me?”
I looked at him.
“You step down as CEO during the audit.”
His face went blank.
“No.”
“That isn’t optional.”
“You cannot remove me from my own company.”
“It isn’t your company.”
I hated saying it.
I said it anyway because truth did not become cruelty merely because it hurt.
Dad rose.
“I built Hayes.”
“And you nearly destroyed it.”
His mouth opened.
I continued.
“You can remain available to investigators and the board. You get counsel. You get due process. But you don’t control company money.”
He stared at me for a long time.
Then something in him broke.
Not loudly.
He sat.
“I was trying to save it.”
“I know.”
That surprised him.
“I know you were.”
His eyes became wet.
I had seen my father cry only twice.
At Grandma’s funeral.
And when his first major building opened.
“I couldn’t let everyone see me fail.”
There it was.
The engine beneath everything.
The wedding.
The forged signature.
The insults.
The need for appearances.
Failure terrified him more than wrongdoing.
I softened my voice.
“Then you should’ve told us you were failing.”
He laughed bitterly.
“You would’ve looked at me differently.”
“I already do.”
He flinched.
“But not because the company struggled.”
He looked at me.
“Because you used us.”
That distinction seemed to reach him.
Not forgiveness.
Understanding.
Sometimes understanding was harsher.
The meeting ended after midnight.
Outside, Alexander waited near the windows while I finished speaking with Catherine.
“You’re really my aunt,” I said.
She smiled.
“Unfortunately for both of us.”
I laughed.
“Why did you stay away?”
“Your father threatened to cut your grandmother off from you if I kept challenging him.”
I closed my eyes.
“Did Grandma agree?”
“She asked me to leave.”
“That must have hurt.”
“It did.”
“Why did you come tonight?”
Catherine looked toward Dad leaving with his attorney.
“Because Eleanor made me promise I would come back if Richard ever used you as collateral again.”
Again.
That word hurt.
She touched my arm.
“She loved you very much.”
“I loved her.”
“I know.”
Alexander walked toward us.
Catherine studied him.
“So you’re the secret husband.”
He smiled.
“Apparently not secret anymore.”
She looked at me.
“Good choice.”
“Thank you.”
Alexander laughed.
We were almost at the elevators when Dad called my name.
I turned.
He stood alone in the hallway.
Mom had already left with Charlotte.
Dad looked smaller without an audience.
“Victoria.”
“Yes?”
He held something in his hand.
My stained silk evening wrap.
I had forgotten it at the hotel.
A staff member must have given it to him.
“I brought this.”
I took it.
“Thank you.”
He nodded.
Neither of us knew what to say.
Then he looked at Alexander.
“Take care of her.”
Every muscle in my body tightened.
Alexander did not answer immediately.
Then he said:
“She takes care of herself.”
My father looked at me.
Alexander continued.
“I just get the privilege of standing beside her.”
Dad swallowed.
He nodded once.
Then turned away.
I thought that was the end of the night.
It wasn’t.
As the elevator doors began closing, Charlotte’s phone rang.
She answered.
Her face instantly changed.
“Nathan?”
He took the phone.
“Who is this?”
Silence.
Then his eyes found mine.
“Victoria.”
“What?”
He switched to speaker.
A hospital administrator’s voice filled the elevator.
“Ms. Hayes, we have Richard Hayes in the emergency department.”
My stomach dropped.
“What happened?”
A pause.
“He collapsed in the lobby ten minutes after you left.”
The elevator doors opened.
Nobody moved.
Then the administrator said:
“He’s awake, but he’s asking for only one person.”
I already knew.
May you like
“Who?”
“You.”
