Chapter 11 - Lucas’s Signature
Lucas waited in the hotel hallway.
Danielle opened the door and nearly closed it again.
“Please.”
She kept her hand on the door.
“Mia’s asleep.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Rachel told me.”
Danielle’s expression hardened.
“I asked her because I didn’t want to wake Mia.”
She let him in.
Cooper stood immediately.
His tail did not wag.
Lucas looked at him.
“Even the dog’s judging me.”
Danielle said, “Sit down.”
He did.
She remained standing.
“I met Mark Harlan.”
Lucas’s face changed.
“When?”
“Today.”
“What did he say?”
“That you signed a resolution giving Evelyn emergency financial authority.”
Lucas looked down.
“I did.”
“You told me you didn’t approve Halcyon.”
“I didn’t.”
“But you handed her the authority that let her do it.”
“I didn’t know.”
“That sentence is becoming your entire personality.”
He flinched.
Danielle continued.
“What did you think you were signing?”
“Dad had just died. Mom said the estate needed temporary flexibility.”
“You didn’t read it?”
“I read the summary.”
“Written by?”
“Charles Wren.”
Danielle laughed once.
“Of course.”
Lucas stood.
“Do you think I don’t understand how bad this looks?”
“I think you understand now.”
“I trusted my mother.”
“That is not the same as having no responsibility.”
“I know.”
She stopped.
It was the first time he had said it without defending himself afterward.
Lucas reached into his bag.
He removed a folder.
“What’s that?”
“Things I should’ve looked at months ago.”
He opened it.
Board minutes.
Emails.
Bank authorizations.
“I found three transfer approvals made using my digital signature.”
Danielle looked at them.
“Were they forged?”
“The signature certificate is mine.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Lucas nodded slowly.
“I let Mom’s assistant keep my authentication token during the estate transition.”
Danielle stared at him.
“You gave someone the equivalent of your corporate signature.”
“For two weeks.”
“Apparently not.”
“I changed it afterward.”
“Did you revoke the token?”
Silence.
Danielle closed her eyes.
“Oh my God.”
“I thought IT handled it.”
“You thought.”
“Yes.”
She turned away.
Lucas said, “I deserve that.”
“Do you?”
He looked at her.
“Because I don’t think you understand what I’m angry about.”
“I endangered the company.”
“No.”
She turned back.
“You made irresponsibility look respectable.”
Lucas said nothing.
“You wore suits. You went to meetings. You nodded at numbers. Everyone called you executive vice president, and all the while your mother made the real decisions because confronting her was uncomfortable.”
His face flushed.
“That’s not fair.”
“There it is again.”
He looked away.
Danielle lowered her voice.
“You know what she counted on?”
“What?”
“That nobody in this family would ever make her uncomfortable enough to stop her.”
Lucas sat down.
The anger left him.
“What do you want me to say?”
“The truth.”
“I was weak.”
Danielle waited.
Lucas looked at his hands.
“I knew she was moving money around.”
Danielle went still.
“How much did you know?”
“Not about Halcyon. Not the fake invoices.”
“What did you know?”
“She told me she needed temporary liquidity for something private.”
“And you didn’t ask?”
“I asked. She said it was tied to Dad’s estate.”
“Did you believe her?”
Lucas hesitated.
“No.”
Danielle felt something inside her break quietly.
“But you signed anyway.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
He looked at her.
“Because she said if I challenged her right after Dad died, the board would think the family was unstable.”
Danielle laughed bitterly.
“So you protected the appearance of stability.”
“Yes.”
“And now our daughter is sleeping in a hotel because your mother tried to make an ‘accident’ look stable.”
Lucas covered his face.
“I’m sorry.”
Danielle’s voice softened.
“I know you are.”
He looked up hopefully.
“That doesn’t fix it.”
The hope disappeared.
She sat across from him.
“Mark said Evelyn asked what happens to Mia’s trust if Mia dies before five.”
Lucas went white.
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“No.”
“Yes.”
“No.”
Danielle watched him absorb it.
He stood so quickly the chair fell over.
“I’m going to talk to her.”
“No.”
“She’s my mother.”
“And she manipulates you.”
“I need to hear her say it.”
Danielle stepped between him and the door.
“You need to stop thinking truth only counts when your mother personally hands it to you.”
He looked at her.
Then his phone buzzed.
A text.
From Evelyn.
COME HOME. ALONE.
Lucas showed Danielle.
A second message arrived.
WE NEED TO FIX WHAT YOUR WIFE HAS DONE.
Danielle looked at him.
Lucas’s expression changed.
Not fear this time.
Decision.
“I’m going.”
She started to object.
He held up a hand.
“I’m not going to argue with her.”
“What are you going to do?”
Lucas picked up the fallen chair.
Then he looked at Danielle.
May you like
“For once in my life, I’m going to listen.”
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