Chapter 13 - The Mother's Last Recording.
Charlotte looked down at the tiny recorder.
Vanessa closed Charlotte's fingers around it.
"Don't play it here."
"Why should I trust you?"
"You shouldn't."
Vanessa glanced toward her father.
"Just trust that I finally hate Victor more than I fear him."
Arthur called the board session to order behind the closed doors.
Miriam hurried toward Charlotte.
"The injunction prevents you from voting, but it doesn't prevent you from presenting evidence."
Daniel checked his watch.
"We have eighteen minutes."
Charlotte followed them toward the boardroom.
Victor blocked her path.
"Board members only."
Miriam held up her attorney credentials.
"She is a named subject of the agenda and has the right to respond."
Victor smiled.
"Under whose authority?"
A voice answered from behind him.
"Mine."
Vanessa's father, Gabriel Laurent, stood at the doorway.
Vanessa stared at him.
Gabriel looked old suddenly.
"Let her in."
Victor's expression hardened.
But he moved.
The boardroom was lined with dark walnut and portraits of past Vale executives.
Charlotte's grandfather watched from one wall.
Her mother watched from another.
Charlotte took the empty seat beneath Eleanor's portrait.
Arthur began reading the motion to suspend all Vale family control pending litigation.
Charlotte placed the black tablet on the table.
"Before you vote, listen to this."
Victor leaned back.
"Another recording?"
"Yes."
Charlotte tapped the screen.
Eleanor Vale's voice filled the room.
"If the board is hearing this, I am either dead or no longer able to speak for myself."
No one moved.
Outside the boardroom, distant music from the gala continued for several seconds before someone finally shut it off.
The contrast made Eleanor's recorded voice feel even more intimate.
Charlotte remembered hearing that same voice tell her to wear a coat, finish school, call more often.
Now it was naming the people who had helped dismantle their family.
"Victor Hale has been stealing from Solmere for at least four years."
Arthur looked down.
"Arthur Bell helped conceal transfers after Victor covered his private debts."
Arthur's face turned red.
"Miriam Cross prepared unlawful documents under coercion."
Miriam closed her eyes.
Then Eleanor's tone changed.
"Gabriel Laurent accepted money willingly."
Vanessa's father stared straight ahead.
Vanessa whispered.
"Dad."
Eleanor continued.
"His daughter, Vanessa, was not part of the original theft."
Vanessa looked up sharply.
Charlotte did too.
"But Victor has been cultivating her as a replacement ally."
"If Charlotte returns, Vanessa may become either the person who helps destroy her or the person who saves her."
Vanessa's eyes filled with tears she refused to let fall.
Charlotte looked across the table at her.
The recording continued.
"The board believes my husband Thomas died thirteen years ago."
Every person in the room went rigid.
Victor did not.
He already knew what was coming.
"Thomas survived."
Charlotte stopped breathing.
"Victor arranged the accident after Thomas discovered the first hidden account."
Gabriel Laurent whispered a curse.
"I kept Thomas's survival secret because Victor threatened Charlotte."
Charlotte's vision blurred.
Her mother had known.
For thirteen years.
"I believed hiding the truth would protect my daughter."
Eleanor's voice cracked for the first time.
"I was wrong."
Then the recording changed.
A man's voice appeared in the background.
Victor's voice.
"Eleanor?"
The boardroom became silent enough to hear the air-conditioning.
Eleanor whispered one final sentence.
"He's here."
A door opened on the recording.
Victor's recorded voice said calmly,
"We need to talk about Charlotte."
Then came a heavy impact.
The recording ended.
All eyes turned to Victor.
He smiled.
"That proves nothing."
May you like
Charlotte placed Vanessa's second recorder beside the tablet.
"Then maybe this does."
