Chapter 6 - The Meeting That Disappeared.
David stared at Ryan's phone as if the screen had personally betrayed him.
"Canceled?"
Ryan nodded once.
"The email came from their investment committee."
David turned immediately toward Emily.
"You did that."
Emily did not flinch.
"I didn't send any email."
"But you can reverse it."
Olivia looked at him in disbelief.
"David."
He ignored her.
"Emily, this company employs forty people."
Emily's voice remained level.
"Then you should stop discussing it like a personal favor between former spouses."
Ryan stepped forward.
"She's right."
David glared at him.
Ryan continued anyway.
"We knew there were diligence questions."
"What questions?"
Olivia asked before David could stop him.
Ryan looked at Thomas, then Emily, then David.
"Revenue recognition."
David's jaw tightened.
"Technical accounting questions."
Ryan nodded slowly.
"And customer concentration."
Thomas folded his arms.
"How concentrated?"
Ryan inhaled.
"Our largest three clients represent more than half our annual revenue."
Thomas's eyes narrowed.
David stepped closer to Ryan.
"Enough."
Ryan finally looked angry.
"No."
That single word surprised everyone.
"You told me this weekend would stabilize everything."
David's voice became dangerously quiet, though never loud.
"Watch yourself."
Ryan's face hardened.
"I've been watching myself for six months while you tell people we're stronger than we are."
Emily remained silent.
She had reviewed Mercer Urban Systems' preliminary materials two weeks earlier without knowing the full personal connection.
Her team had flagged the same concerns.
She had removed herself from the process the moment Ryan's identity triggered a memory from David's old stories.
The investment committee had continued without her.
That was exactly why she had not known the meeting was being canceled.
David did not believe her.
"You expect me to think your committee made this decision today by accident?"
Emily looked at him carefully.
"The committee makes decisions based on documents."
"You run the committee."
"I chair it."
She paused.
"I do not order professionals to ignore facts because my former husband is uncomfortable."
Thomas gave Emily a brief look of respect.
David saw it and hated it.
"So this is what you wanted."
Emily's patience finally thinned.
"I wanted Lily and Sophie to see their father get married because they asked to be here."
She stepped closer.
"I did not create your funding problem."
Another step.
"I did not create Olivia's questions."
Her voice dropped.
"And I did not tell a five-year-old that children were banned from a wedding filled with children."
David looked away.
The hotel bells chimed the quarter hour.
The ceremony was twelve minutes away.
The coordinator appeared again.
"Ms. Grant, I need to know whether we're holding the processional."
Olivia stared through the open doors toward the ballroom.
Hundreds of white candles waited inside.
A string quartet was already seated.
Her name and David's were printed together on every place card.
She had spent fourteen months planning a future that suddenly seemed built on missing pages.
"Hold it."
David moved toward her.
"Olivia, we cannot keep delaying."
She looked at him.
"We can delay anything."
"People traveled for this."
"Then they can wait ten more minutes while I figure out who I'm marrying."
David's face tightened.
"You're letting Emily turn this into a spectacle."
Emily immediately stepped back.
"I can leave."
Olivia turned to her.
"No."
The word came fast.
Emily looked surprised.
Olivia's eyes were bright but steady.
"Please don't leave yet."
David stared at her.
"Why?"
Olivia kept her attention on Emily.
"Because I need to ask her something you clearly were never going to tell me."
Emily waited.
Olivia took a slow breath.
"When did David last see his daughters before today?"
David's face went still.
Emily glanced toward the hotel doors where Lily and Sophie had disappeared with Margaret.
Then she answered.
"In person?"
Olivia nodded.
May you like
Emily looked back at David.
"One hundred and twenty-seven days ago."
