Chapter 15 - Before Hello
I thought Julian and I met by accident.
A charity gala at the Plaza.
He bumped my elbow while I was holding a glass of red wine.
It spilled on his cuff.
He joked that at least it wasn't white.
Julian had been told to meet me.
"Did he tell you to date me too?" I asked.
"Yes."
"And you did."
"Yes."
"When did it become real?"
He looked at me.
"I don't know."
That answer hurt more than a dramatic one.
Because maybe there had been no clean line.
Maybe love and manipulation had grown together until neither of us could separate them.
Naomi filed it.
Julian did not contest.
He also resigned from Hartwell Hospitality.
The board appointed an interim CEO and opened the books.
Hidden debt: one hundred eighty-six million.
Improper vendor payments: at least thirty-one million.
Charles's personal benefit: still being calculated.
Sienna submitted her father's records to prosecutors.
The company publicly cleared Alan Mercer's name.
Fifteen years late.
Still necessary.
Bennett Capital exercised the convertible note.
Not to take over Hartwell forever.
To force an independent restructuring.
I joined the oversight committee for ninety days.
Then Sienna called me.
"I found something in the surveillance files."
"What?"
"A photo of your father."
"Where?"
"Meeting Charles."
"That's not surprising."
"The date is."
She sent it.
Three days before my father died.
Thomas Bennett sat across from Charles in a diner near LaGuardia.
My father looked furious.
Charles looked afraid.
On the back of the photo, the investigator had written:
BENNETT THREATENED TO TELL CLARA EVERYTHING.
My father died of a heart attack three days later.
I stared at the image.
Sienna said, "Clara, I don't know if it means anything."
May you like
Neither did I.
But for the first time, I needed to know whether my father's death had really been natural.
