Chapter 3 - The Marriage Contract
Mariana did not confront Andrew that evening.
She joined him for dinner.
She asked about the acquisition.
She listened while he described companies that did not exist, investors who had never approved the transaction, and bank representatives who were supposedly eager to remove her authority.
Brenda sat at his right side.
Mariana sat at the opposite end of the table.
Samuel’s broken glasses remained hidden inside her handbag.
“Have you reviewed the authorization?” Andrew asked.
“I have.”
“And?”
“I need clarification.”
He exhaled impatiently.
“On what?”
“The medical incapacity clause.”
Brenda’s fork paused.
Andrew did not.
“It is protective language.”
“It gives you the ability to declare me incapable without an independent evaluation.”
“That would never happen.”
“Then remove it.”
Andrew placed his fork down.
“You are proving why the clause is necessary.”
Mariana almost smiled.
“And what exactly am I proving?”
“That you are becoming obsessed with control.”
“This document gives you control over everything I own.”
“Everything we own.”
“No,” Mariana said. “Everything I own.”
The sentence changed the atmosphere in the room.
Andrew stared at her.
Brenda lowered her gaze, pretending to study her plate.
For years, Andrew had avoided discussing the source of the capital that transformed Blackwood International. He had told reporters that early investors believed in his vision. He had never admitted that the largest investment came from a company managed by his wife.
“Your inheritance was invested in our future,” Andrew said.
“My inheritance purchased your future.”
His face reddened.
“You think I built nothing?”
“I think you built a successful company using resources I gave you. That should have made us partners.”
“We are partners.”
“Then why are you trying to have me declared incapable?”
Brenda intervened.
“Perhaps this is not the right time.”
Mariana turned to her.
“You are correct. You should not be here.”
Andrew pushed his chair back.
“Brenda stays.”
“Why?”
“Because she understands the pressure I am under.”
“And I do not?”
“You have never understood what it takes to run my company.”
Mariana looked at him for several seconds.
His company.
That was how he had begun referring to it shortly after Brenda joined the executive team.
Mariana had hired Brenda five years earlier.
At the time, Brenda had been intelligent, disciplined, and nearly bankrupt after caring for an ill parent. Mariana had approved an advance on her salary and given her access to the company’s most influential clients.
Now Brenda wore a gown purchased through an account Mariana secretly controlled and sat beside Andrew as if she belonged there.
Mariana stood.
“I will have my attorneys review the authorization.”
Andrew laughed.
“Samuel has already reviewed it.”
“Has he?”
“Yes.”
“Then where is he?”
Andrew’s expression held for half a second too long.
“Geneva.”
Mariana picked up her handbag.
“That is interesting.”
“Why?”
“Because Samuel has not left the country.”
Brenda’s chair scraped softly against the floor.
Andrew rose.
“What have you done?”
Mariana met his eyes.
“I made a phone call.”
“To whom?”
“My attorney.”
“I told you not to interfere.”
“You told me not to contact the bank. You said nothing about contacting the man who has represented my family for twenty-three years.”
Andrew moved around the table.
“You need to stop investigating matters you do not understand.”
Mariana remained calm.
“Is that a warning?”
“It is advice from your husband.”
“Then I decline it.”
She walked toward the door.
Andrew’s voice followed her.
“If you refuse to sign, the board will remove you.”
Mariana stopped.
The board could not remove her.
Not legally.
But Andrew’s confidence suggested he believed he had found another way.
She turned.
“When is the vote?”
Andrew seemed surprised by the question.
“Friday.”
Four days away.
“And what will the board be told?”
“That your behavior has become unpredictable.”
“What behavior?”
Brenda answered quietly.
“The incident at the winter benefit.”
Mariana remembered the benefit.
A waiter had brought her a glass of water. After drinking it, she had become dizzy and disoriented. Andrew had taken her home while Brenda apologized to the guests.
The following morning, Andrew claimed she had accused several executives of stealing.
Mariana remembered almost nothing after taking the drink.
“You recorded me,” she said.
Andrew’s silence confirmed it.
Brenda folded her hands.
“We were worried about you.”
“No,” Mariana replied. “You were preparing evidence.”
She left the dining room before either of them could answer.
Upstairs, she locked her bedroom door and called Sofia.
“I need the medical report from the winter benefit.”
“There was no official report.”
“Find the waiter.”
“I already did. His name was Daniel Ruiz. He disappeared from the staffing agency two days later.”
“Disappeared?”
“No current address. No employment history after the event. His phone was disconnected.”
Mariana removed the brass key from her handbag.
“What about Samuel?”
“Still missing.”
“Search every property connected to Northgate Protection.”
“That may take time.”
“Prioritize buildings near the old Vale warehouses.”
Sofia was silent for a moment.
“Mariana, there is something else.”
A document appeared on the encrypted screen.
It was a copy of Mariana and Andrew’s marriage agreement.
At least, it looked like one.
The first pages were authentic. The signatures were real.
The final amendment was not.
It stated that if Mariana were removed from Vale Meridian Holdings because of incapacity, all voting authority would transfer to her spouse.
The amendment carried Samuel’s digital certification.
It also carried Mariana’s fingerprint.
“That fingerprint came from somewhere,” Sofia said.
Mariana remembered the winter benefit.
The dizziness.
Andrew holding her hand while Brenda pressed a cold cloth against her fingers.
“They did not drug me merely to record me,” Mariana said.
Sofia understood immediately.
“They used your hand to authorize the amendment.”
Mariana stared at the forged contract.
Andrew’s plan was no longer an attempt.
Legally, the trap had already been built.
The board vote on Friday would activate it.
Mariana looked at the brass key again.
“Trace the amendment’s registration.”
“I did.”
“Where was it filed?”
“It was not filed through a court.”
“Then where?”
“Through a private registry in Luxembourg.”
“Whose registry?”
Sofia sent another file.
The registry belonged to an organization Mariana had not heard named since her father’s funeral.
The Aurelian Circle.
Her father had once called it the most dangerous financial network in Europe.
May you like
At the bottom of the registry document was a recent authorization.
Approved by M. Vale.
