Chapter 7 - The Last Lie Grant Had Left
His name was Raymond Shaw.
For nineteen years, Dante believed his mother's death had been an accident.
Now he wasn't sure.
Neither was I.
Shaw had served Arthur.
Then Eleanor.
Then Grant.
When investigators searched his apartment, they found no evidence connecting him to Sofia's death.
They found something stranger.
Letters.
Dozens of them.
From Sofia to Eleanor.
The two women had remained in contact for years.
Eleanor had never told Dante.
"Why?"
We were no longer in the hospital.
Lily and I had moved into Dante's secure penthouse after my discharge.
Eleanor sat across from us.
Dante stood by the window.
He hadn't spoken for several minutes.
"Sofia asked me not to tell you," Eleanor said.
"Why?"
"Because she wanted you free of Arthur."
"I had a right to know."
"Yes."
"Did Arthur kill her?"
"No."
"Did Shaw?"
Eleanor looked at him.
"No."
"How can you know?"
"Because I was in the car."
Dante turned.
Everything stopped.
Eleanor's eyes filled.
"Sofia wasn't alone when the accident happened."
She explained.
Sofia had called Eleanor that night.
Arthur had discovered she still possessed evidence proving Dante's paternity.
He wanted it back.
Eleanor agreed to help her leave New York.
They were driving to a train station.
A truck ran a red light.
Sofia died.
Eleanor survived.
Arthur used his influence to keep Eleanor's presence out of the public report.
Shaw had signed the altered report.
Not to hide murder.
To hide scandal.
Dante stared at Eleanor.
"You let me believe she died alone."
"I was a coward."
"Yes."
She accepted it.
No defense.
No excuse.
That mattered.
Maybe not enough.
But it mattered.
Grant's final attempt to turn Dante against us failed.
Two days later, Grant was summoned before the Kingsley board.
I attended.
Not because I wanted revenge.
Because Lily now owned a stake in everything discussed inside that room.
Grant entered looking like a man who had aged ten years in forty-eight hours.
He saw me.
Then Dante.
Then Eleanor.
Then Vanessa.
Everyone he had manipulated was sitting at the same table.
Grant almost smiled.
"This is theatrical."
I said nothing.
The independent investigators presented the evidence.
Grant's secret debts.
His contract with Vanessa's family.
His instructions to Voss.
His public deception concerning my fertility.
His attempt to obtain control of Lily's trust.
Voss's theft.
The forged medical records.
When they finished, Grant looked at me.
"Claire, can we talk privately?"
"No."
"Please."
It was the first time I had ever heard Grant Kingsley say that word to me.
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
"You wanted an audience when you destroyed me," I said. "You can have one while you explain yourself."
His face tightened.
"I didn't know Voss was stealing."
"I believe you."
Surprise.
"But you knew what you asked him to do to me."
Silence.
"You knew I wasn't barren."
"Yes."
There it was.
One word.
The truth I had waited six months to hear.
Vanessa looked away.
Eleanor closed her eyes.
Dante didn't move.
Grant continued.
"I was trapped."
"No. You were in debt."
"My father built a system where everyone competed against everyone."
"So you punished me?"
"I needed the Carlisle financing."
"You could have divorced me honestly."
"I knew you wouldn't understand."
I laughed softly.
"You never gave me the opportunity."
Grant looked toward Lily's empty stroller beside me.
She was upstairs with my sister.
"She's my daughter."
"Biologically."
"I want to see her."
"Why?"
His expression changed.
"Because she's mine."
"That isn't an answer."
"I'm her father."
"A father doesn't become interested in his child because a trust notification arrives."
Grant flinched.
Good.
He needed to.
The board voted.
Grant was removed as CEO pending criminal and civil investigations.
His voting rights were suspended.
An independent trustee would oversee the company until the courts determined the final structure.
Dante was offered interim control.
He refused.
Grant stared at him.
"You've wanted this your whole life."
Dante answered calmly.
"No. You've been afraid I wanted it my whole life. There's a difference."
That sentence destroyed Grant more effectively than anything else.
Because it was true.
Dante had built his own fortune.
His own name.
His own life.
Grant had spent years fighting a brother who wasn't fighting him.
After the meeting, Grant stopped me near the elevator.
Dante immediately stepped closer.
I raised a hand.
"It's okay."
Grant looked at me.
Not the way he had on our wedding day.
Not the way he had during the divorce.
There was no superiority left.
Only exhaustion.
"I loved you."
I believed that too.
In his way.
That was the tragedy.
"You loved having me," I said. "You didn't love what loving me required."
His eyes reddened.
"Can I meet Lily?"
"Not today."
"Eventually?"
"If a court determines it's healthy for her. And if you learn that being her father isn't the same as owning her."
The elevator arrived.
I stepped inside.
Grant said my name.
I looked back.
"I'm sorry."
Six months earlier, those words would have broken me.
Now they simply existed.
"I hope someday you understand what you're apologizing for."
The doors closed.
That night, I fed Lily beside the penthouse windows.
Dante sat across the room reading one of Sofia's letters.
He had barely spoken since the board meeting.
"Anything?"
He looked up.
"My mother knew about you."
"What?"
I froze.
"Not personally."
He handed me the letter.
It had been written seven years earlier.
Sofia described Arthur's plans for Grant.
His future marriage.
His future heirs.
Then one sentence:
If Grant ever marries a woman kind enough to survive this family, tell Dante to protect her if the Kingsleys teach her what they taught me.
My eyes filled.
"Dante."
He looked away.
"My mother asked me to protect someone she never met."
"Maybe she was asking you to be different from Arthur."
He looked at Lily.
"I don't know how to be part of a family."
"Neither do I anymore."
"That's not reassuring."
"It wasn't supposed to be."
He smiled.
Then Lily cried.
Dante immediately stood.
I laughed.
"What?"
"You say you don't know how to be family, but every time she makes a sound, you move before I do."
He looked almost embarrassed.
Dante Vale.
Embarrassed by a seven-pound baby.
I handed Lily to him.
He held her carefully.
She settled instantly.
"Traitor," I whispered.
Then my phone rang.
My attorney.
I answered.
Her first sentence erased my smile.
"Claire, Grant filed one final petition."
"For what?"
There was a pause.
"Full custody."
I stared at Dante.
My attorney continued.
"And Claire—he attached a sealed document we've never seen before."
"What document?"
"A medical report dated three weeks before Lily was conceived."
May you like
I stopped breathing.
"It says Grant knew something about your pregnancy before you did."
