Chapter 4 - THE MAN IN HER FATHER’S CHAIR
The hidden passage led into the bookshop below.
Evelyn and Naomi escaped through a delivery entrance while Marcus’s men searched Arthur’s apartment.
Evelyn wanted to call the police.
Arthur stopped her with a message sent from an old emergency phone.
DO NOT RETURN. I AM SAFE. THEY THINK YOU LEFT EMPTY-HANDED.
The claim did little to comfort her.
By sunrise, the black sedan outside Evelyn’s townhouse was gone.
Marcus sent her a message.
DINNER AT THE HOTEL. 8:00. WE NEED TO DISCUSS OUR MARRIAGE.
Naomi advised her not to go.
Evelyn went anyway.
The Aurelia Grand’s private dining room occupied the eighteenth floor. It offered a panoramic view of the city and had once been reserved for family celebrations.
When Evelyn entered, Marcus sat at the head of the table.
Her father’s chair.
Celeste sat to his right.
Victor Vale was nowhere to be seen.
Marcus rose and pulled out the chair opposite him.
“I asked for a private dinner.”
“You stopped deserving privacy when you searched Arthur Bell’s home.”
Marcus did not deny it.
Celeste lifted her wineglass.
“You should sit down, Evelyn.”
“That brooch does not belong to you.”
Celeste touched the sapphire.
“Marcus gave it to me.”
“He stole it from my mother’s vault.”
“Your mother is not using it.”
Evelyn looked at Marcus.
“Is this what you wanted? To parade her through my family’s hotel wearing my mother’s jewelry?”
Marcus remained calm.
“I wanted you to understand that your absence has consequences.”
“My absence from what? Your affair or your fraud?”
Celeste’s hand tightened around her glass.
Marcus leaned back.
“You have always believed your name makes you untouchable. You inherited wealth, reputation, and influence without earning any of it.”
“I never claimed otherwise.”
“I built the modern Aurelia. I doubled revenue. I brought international investors.”
“You also moved eighteen million dollars into shell companies.”
The color faded slightly from his face.
Celeste turned toward him.
Marcus recovered quickly.
“You’ve been investigating me.”
“You forged my signatures.”
“You signed broad operational authority when I became managing director.”
“Operational authority does not permit theft.”
“The board will decide what it permits.”
“The board serves the trust.”
Marcus smiled.
“Not anymore.”
He pushed a document across the table.
It contained Victor Vale’s signature.
The document temporarily transferred voting control of the Vale Family Trust to Marcus.
Evelyn examined the date.
It had been signed three months earlier, on the same day Marcus claimed Victor had left the country for treatment.
“Where is my father?”
“Resting.”
“Where?”
“In a private medical residence.”
“What residence?”
“He asked not to be disturbed.”
“Then why haven’t I heard his voice?”
Marcus’s expression hardened.
“Because every conversation with you becomes a crisis.”
Celeste placed her hand over his.
“Victor understood that Marcus was the only person capable of protecting the hotel.”
Evelyn looked at the gesture.
“You speak about my father as though you know him.”
Celeste withdrew her hand.
Marcus tapped the document.
“Victor gave me control. At the centennial celebration, the board will approve a permanent restructuring.”
“What restructuring?”
“The hotel will be transferred into a new corporation.”
“Owned by whom?”
“Investors who understand its potential.”
“And your shell companies?”
“My companies.”
The admission came without shame.
Evelyn finally understood.
Marcus was not merely stealing money.
He was using money stolen from the hotel to finance the acquisition of the hotel itself.
He intended to buy the Aurelia Grand with its own funds.
“You cannot complete the transfer without my protected interest,” Evelyn said.
“That is why we’re discussing our marriage.”
Marcus placed a second document beside the first.
A divorce settlement.
Under its terms, Evelyn would surrender all claims connected to the hotel in exchange for the townhouse and a fixed payment.
She almost laughed.
“You want me to sign away my mother’s legacy.”
“I want you to accept reality.”
Celeste stood and walked behind Marcus’s chair.
“You left the hotel. Marcus stayed. He deserves it.”
Evelyn looked again at the sapphire brooch.
“Does she know what the brooch opens?”
Marcus’s eyes moved toward Celeste.
That was the answer.
Celeste had not told him everything.
For the first time, tension appeared between them.
Evelyn rose.
“I will not sign.”
Marcus folded his hands.
“Then the board will declare you unfit to protect your interest.”
“On what basis?”
“Emotional instability. Abandonment of responsibility. Public misconduct.”
“I haven’t committed public misconduct.”
“Not yet.”
Marcus pressed a button beneath the table.
Two security guards entered.
Owen was not among them.
Marcus smiled.
“The centennial celebration is in six weeks. By then, everyone will understand why you were removed.”
Evelyn walked toward the door.
Celeste called after her.
“You should take the settlement.”
Evelyn turned.
“You should take off my mother’s brooch.”
Celeste’s fingers touched the sapphire.
May you like
Then she whispered words Marcus was not meant to hear.
“You don’t know what your mother hid.”
