Chapter 45 - Dinner With the Enemy
Rebecca Vale chose a restaurant with no sign.
I already hated her.
People who ate in restaurants without signs were usually either criminals or convinced truffle foam constituted dinner.
Julian was forbidden from coming.
He came anyway.
So did Eleanor.
Meredith Grace came because the invitation had specifically included her.
We entered a private dining room overlooking Central Park.
Rebecca Vale stood beside the window.
She was sixty-eight.
Silver hair cut sharply at her jaw.
Black dress.
No jewelry.
No visible security.
She looked nothing like Adrian.
That made her more unsettling.
“Meredith Campbell-Sterling.”
“Rebecca Vale.”
Her gaze moved toward Julian.
“You got old.”
Julian smiled.
“So did you.”
Apparently they had met.
I turned toward him.
“You didn't mention that.”
“It was forty years ago.”
Rebecca almost smiled.
“Still editing information for your wife, Julian?”
“Careful.”
I sat.
“Both of you can stop.”
Meredith Grace sat beside me.
Eleanor remained standing.
Rebecca noticed.
“Protective.”
“Experienced,” Eleanor replied.
Rebecca poured water.
“No poison.”
“Disappointing,” I said. “Would have simplified things.”
She looked at Meredith Grace.
“You have her humor.”
“My grandmother claims it's intelligence.”
“Your grandmother claims many things.”
We began.
Rebecca explained that Evelyn Vale had indeed been her mother.
Adrian had been her older brother.
After Northstar collapsed, Evelyn blamed Julian for destroying the family’s future.
Adrian turned that resentment into obsession.
Rebecca did not.
“So you expect applause?” I asked.
“No.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because Charles Wellington approached me.”
Meredith Grace leaned forward.
“For the Founders’ Covenant.”
“Yes.”
“He needs you to claim the voting rights.”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to?”
Rebecca looked at Julian.
“I haven't decided.”
That was honest.
I respected honesty.
Didn't trust it.
But respected it.
“What does Charles offer you?” Eleanor asked.
“Control of the old Northstar patents.”
Julian laughed softly.
“Most are obsolete.”
“Not the encryption architecture.”
“That technology belongs to Vanguard.”
“Legally questionable.”
There it was.
Money.
Always money eventually.
“What does any of this have to do with Meredith House?” I asked.
Rebecca folded her hands.
“Charles believes your family’s reputation is Vanguard’s greatest defensive asset.”
“That is absurd.”
“No. It is brilliant.”
She looked at Meredith Grace.
“Vanguard cannot appear to crush a company suing a children’s charity run by the Sterling family. Charles creates a public conflict. If Julian fights Crown Harbor, he looks like a billionaire using corporate power to protect family interests.”
“And if we don't fight?”
“He consolidates ownership.”
Meredith Grace understood immediately.
“He trapped both institutions together.”
“Yes.”
I almost admired it.
Almost.
“Why tell us?” Julian asked.
Rebecca’s expression changed.
“Because Charles made one mistake.”
“What?”
“He thinks I hate you more than I hate being used.”
Good.
That I understood.
Rebecca slid a flash drive across the table.
“Crown Harbor internal communications.”
Meredith Grace didn't touch it.
“Why should we trust this?”
“You shouldn't.”
Excellent answer.
“What’s on it?” Eleanor asked.
“Evidence Charles created fabricated tenant complaints, hired private investigators to intimidate Meredith House clients, and coordinated stock purchases through prohibited nominee accounts.”
“That could destroy him,” I said.
“Yes.”
“So why not give it to regulators yourself?”
Rebecca looked at me.
“Because I want something.”
Naturally.
“What?”
“Northstar’s truth made public.”
Julian became still.
“What truth?”
“All of it.”
He stared at her.
“No.”
I looked at my husband.
“What aren't you saying?”
Rebecca smiled sadly.
“Your husband saved Vanguard by taking the fall publicly for Northstar’s ethical collapse.”
“I reported the violations.”
“Yes. After my mother ordered them.”
Meredith Grace looked confused.
Rebecca continued.
“Evelyn authorized illegal technology transfers. Julian discovered them. He gave her forty-eight hours to self-report.”
“She refused,” Julian said.
“So he reported the company himself.”
“Yes.”
“Which destroyed Northstar.”
“Yes.”
“But Julian allowed the public to believe the violations happened under collective leadership.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at Rebecca.
“Because her children were young.”
Adrian and Rebecca.
He had protected them.
Rebecca’s eyes became wet.
“My brother spent his entire life hating the man who kept our mother out of prison.”
Silence settled over the room.
Finally, she pushed the flash drive closer.
“Publish the Northstar record. Clear Julian’s name. Clear mine from Adrian’s crimes.”
“And the Covenant?” I asked.
Rebecca looked directly at Charles’s future through the window.
“I’ll surrender every voting right.”
Meredith Grace picked up the drive.
“Then we have a deal.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“No.”
She looked at me.
“You decide.”
I thought about everything Julian and I had learned about power.
Truth delayed was still truth.
But buried truth always collected interest.
“Release it,” I said.
Julian looked at me.
I took his hand.
“No more inherited secrets.”
For the first time all evening, Rebecca Vale smiled.
“Then Charles Wellington is finished.”
May you like
She was wrong.
Charles had only begun.
