Chapter 12 - The PrenupCorinne asked to meet.
Ortiz said no.
Vanessa asked again through Elise.
Eventually, they arranged it at the lawyers’ offices with counsel present and no discussion of the criminal investigation beyond what attorneys permitted.
Adrian almost refused.
Then he remembered Junie asking whether she was bad.
He needed to understand what kind of person had made a four-year-old ask that question.
Corinne entered wearing no makeup.
Adrian hated that he noticed.
For eighteen months, he had known every version of her face.
Or thought he had.
She sat opposite him.
“Hi.”
He didn’t answer.
Vanessa began.
“This meeting is not an admission of criminal liability.”
Adrian looked at Elise.
“Do lawyers hear themselves?”
Elise murmured, “Constantly. It’s our curse.”
Corinne almost smiled.
Adrian saw the reflex.
A familiar exchange.
For one second they were husband and wife again.
Then Junie’s hands flashed in his memory.
Corinne’s smile disappeared.
“I’m sorry.”
Adrian stared.
“That sentence isn’t big enough.”
“I know.”
“No, I don’t think you do.”
She looked down.
“I pushed her.”
Vanessa stiffened.
“Corinne.”
“You already know.”
“Stop.”
Corinne shook her head.
“I’m not going to sit here and make him crazy.”
Adrian’s voice was low.
“Why?”
“I was angry.”
“At a four-year-old?”
“At everything.”
“That’s not an answer.”
Corinne looked at him.
“Marcus told me you destroyed my father.”
Adrian said nothing.
“He showed me documents. He told me you intentionally forced Vale Shipping into bankruptcy so you could acquire its contracts.”
“And you believed him.”
“Yes.”
“For years?”
“Yes.”
“So you married me.”
Her eyes filled.
“At first, I wanted to get close to you.”
“To do what?”
“I didn’t know.”
“Steal from me?”
“No.”
“Humiliate me?”
“No.”
“Destroy my company?”
“I thought maybe I could help Marcus force a sale.”
Adrian laughed quietly.
“You married me as corporate leverage.”
“At first.”
He flinched.
Those two words hurt more than the rest.
“At first.”
Corinne leaned forward.
“Then I knew you.”
“You knew the version of me you were studying.”
“That isn’t fair.”
Adrian stared.
“You pushed my daughter off a yacht.”
Corinne closed her eyes.
“You’re right.”
Vanessa interrupted.
“We should stop.”
Corinne ignored her.
“Marcus gave me a trust summary. He said if Junie died before she was eighteen, Naomi’s shares reverted to you.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“And because of our prenup?”
Corinne nodded.
Their prenup protected premarital assets.
But it also included survivorship provisions that would give Corinne substantial security if Adrian died while they were married.
Not ownership of Junie’s trust.
Never that.
“I didn’t plan to kill her,” Corinne whispered.
“Stop saying that like it helps.”
“I know.”
“Did Marcus tell you to push her?”
“No.”
“Did he know something would happen?”
“I don’t know.”
“You expect me to believe the camera was deleted thirty-six minutes before?”
Corinne looked genuinely startled.
“What?”
Adrian watched her closely.
“You didn’t know.”
“No.”
“Someone deleted the footage before Junie fell.”
Corinne turned toward Vanessa.
Her lawyer’s expression said this was new information.
Adrian continued.
“Did Marcus say anything about the yacht cameras?”
Corinne hesitated.
Vanessa immediately said, “Do not answer.”
Adrian leaned back.
That hesitation had told him enough.
Corinne whispered, “He said the bow camera would be offline for maintenance.”
Adrian went cold.
“When?”
“The night before.”
“Why would he tell you that?”
“I thought—”
“What?”
She started crying.
Not theatrically.
Quietly.
“I thought he wanted me to scare you.”
Adrian stared.
“How?”
“He kept saying you wouldn’t sell while you thought you could control everything. He said you needed to feel how fragile everything was.”
“You thought terrifying my daughter was a business strategy?”
“No.”
“You accepted one hundred fifty thousand dollars that morning.”
Corinne’s head snapped up.
“Who told you?”
“Police.”
“That money wasn’t for Junie.”
“What was it for?”
Vanessa placed a hand on Corinne’s arm.
“Do not answer.”
Corinne shook it off.
“For helping with Northstar.”
“By sleeping with me?”
“Don’t.”
“That’s what you did.”
Her face twisted.
“I loved you.”
Adrian laughed once.
“You wiped my kiss off your face.”
Corinne froze.
He saw it.
“Junie told me.”
Silence.
“She watched you.”
Corinne covered her mouth.
Adrian continued.
“She remembers your face. She remembers every word.”
“I was angry.”
“She remembers hanging over the ocean.”
Corinne broke.
Her shoulders shook.
Adrian felt nothing comforting rise inside him.
Only exhaustion.
“You want to know the worst part?”
She looked at him.
“I might eventually understand how Marcus manipulated you.”
Corinne’s eyes widened.
“But I will never understand why you looked at my daughter and decided she was the person who should pay for it.”
Corinne’s tears fell freely.
Adrian stood.
Then she said, “Marcus killed Naomi’s audit.”
He stopped.
“What?”
Corinne wiped her face.
“He told me once. He’d been drinking.”
Vanessa whispered, “Corinne, stop.”
Adrian slowly turned.
“What did he say?”
Corinne looked at him.
“He said Naomi almost ruined everything before the cancer ‘solved the problem for him.’”
The room went silent.
Adrian’s face changed.
Corinne rushed to clarify.
“He didn’t say he hurt her. He meant she died before she could finish the audit.”
But Adrian was no longer hearing the explanation.
He heard Marcus’s voice from years ago.
Naomi should be resting. Let me handle the books.
He remembered handing over access.
Authority.
Trust.
Corinne’s crime had begun on the yacht.
May you like
Marcus’s might have begun years before.
And Naomi had been trying to show Adrian the door long before anyone pushed Junie toward the edge.
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