Chapter 10 - The Marriage Plan
Nathan laughed once because the alternative was breaking something.
“My father planned my marriage?”
Martin shook his head. “Discussed. Not arranged.”
“Four years ago, you helped remove Grace so that discussion could become possible.”
Martin did not answer.
That was answer enough.
Nathan ordered him off the property and suspended his access to Cole Capital systems pending an internal investigation.
Martin stared at him.
“You cannot run the company on emotion.”
Nathan looked toward the guest room where Lily was playing.
“For four years, everyone around me called control ‘strategy.’ I’m done confusing cruelty with discipline.”
After Martin left, Grace stood beside the window.
Nathan approached slowly.
“I didn’t know.”
“I believe you.”
He closed his eyes.
Those three words almost broke him.
Grace continued. “But believing you didn’t know doesn’t erase what happened.”
“I know.”
“And Lily is not a chance to repair us.”
“I know.”
“She is a child, not evidence that we were supposed to end up together.”
Nathan looked at her. “I know.”
This time she believed him.
Rebecca interrupted with financial documents.
The planned Cole-Whitmore merger contained a private side agreement tied to Nathan’s marriage.
If Nathan married Victoria, Charles Whitmore would receive a board nomination right in Cole Capital’s family holding company.
But Nathan’s trust had an old clause no one had mentioned.
Upon legal recognition of Nathan’s first biological child, five percent of the holding company’s voting shares transferred into an independent trust for that child.
Five percent was enough to block the merger vote.
Nathan stared at the clause.
“So Lily doesn’t just expose what they did.”
May you like
Rebecca nodded.
“Her existence destroys the deal.”
