Chapter 2 - The Invitation
The yacht party was supposed to celebrate Charles Richardson's sixty-seventh birthday.
According to Julian, it would also be the perfect opportunity for his parents to finally accept Sienna.
Kira disagreed.
"Do not go."
Sienna sat behind the enormous walnut desk in her private office at Vantage Capital.
Through the windows, Manhattan glittered beneath an evening storm.
Kira placed a financial report in front of her.
"Richardson Maritime missed another covenant."
"By how much?"
"Enough."
"Cash position?"
"Worse than they're reporting."
Sienna turned a page.
There were transfers to an entity called Northstar Meridian LLC.
Repeated.
Large.
Unexplained.
"Who owns Northstar?"
"We don't know."
"Find out."
Kira folded her arms.
"And the yacht?"
"I'm going."
"Sienna."
"I need to know what Julian does when choosing between me and his family costs him something."
Kira stared at her.
"You already know."
Sienna looked away.
Perhaps she did.
The following morning, Julian called.
"Mom says dress appropriately."
Sienna almost laughed.
"What does that mean?"
"You know how she is."
"I know exactly how she is."
"Just don't make this difficult."
That sentence stayed with Sienna.
Don't make this difficult.
As though cruelty became acceptable whenever resisting it caused inconvenience.
She almost canceled.
Instead, she chose the pale cream dress.
No diamonds.
No security detail visible.
No driver at the marina.
The experiment would continue one final day.
When she arrived, Eleanor looked at her dress and said, "At least you tried."
Charles asked whether she had ever been on a yacht before.
"Several."
"Tour boats don't count."
Sienna smiled.
"Of course."
Julian kissed her cheek and disappeared toward his friends.
For two hours she watched Eleanor introduce Julian to daughters of bankers, developers and politicians.
Each introduction carried the same message.
Look what you could have instead.
Then Eleanor approached Sienna with the martini.
The confrontation began.
And less than fifteen minutes later, Kira was standing on the yacht holding foreclosure documents.
But those documents suddenly didn't matter.
Because Julian had signed something.
And when Kira finally told Sienna what it was, Sienna felt colder than the martini soaking her dress.
"A personal guarantee?" she asked.
Kira shook her head.
"Worse."
May you like
She opened the waterproof case.
"An ownership transfer."
