Chapter 12 - Breakfast With the Man Who Planned Everything.
Grant arrived at the private breakfast room at exactly seven.
He wore a charcoal suit, a silver tie, and the calm expression of a man attending an ordinary family wedding.
Claire was already seated.
Naomi sat beside her.
Vivian did not attend.
Claire wanted Grant to believe her mother was still uncertain.
Marcus and Daniel remained outside the glass doors.
The black folder rested on the table.
Grant noticed it immediately.
"You look tired."
"I am."
"Then let's end this nonsense quickly."
He poured himself coffee.
"Ethan has always been insecure about your family's wealth."
Claire said nothing.
Grant continued.
"He drinks too much when he's nervous, and he says foolish things."
"Did he say foolish things when you hired him four years ago?"
Grant's hand stopped above the cup.
Only for a second.
Then he smiled.
"I have hired hundreds of consultants."
"You hired Ethan personally."
"I may have."
"Before I met him."
Grant shrugged.
"This is a small industry."
Claire opened the folder to the fake proxy page.
"Did you put this in my packet?"
Grant barely looked at it.
"No."
"Do you recognize it?"
"It looks like an old legal form."
Naomi leaned forward.
"How old?"
Grant looked at her.
"I don't know."
Claire turned the page over.
"Interesting."
Grant's patience thinned.
"Claire, your fiance has been manipulating you for months."
"Maybe."
"There is no maybe."
He pointed at the folder.
"Ethan created those extra three pages because he wanted access to your shares."
Silence filled the room.
Claire did not move.
Naomi did not blink.
Grant realized his mistake one second too late.
Claire had never told him there were three inserted pages.
"How do you know there were three?"
Grant's face changed.
"Your mother told me."
"She didn't."
"Then Ethan did."
"He doesn't know we've identified all three."
Grant pushed his chair back.
"I will not sit here and be interrogated by my own niece."
Claire pulled out the old consulting agreement.
Grant's anger vanished.
He stared at his signature.
"Where did you get that?"
"You tell me."
He reached for the paper.
Claire closed the folder before he could touch it.
"Thomas destroyed those files."
This time, Grant did not realize what he had admitted.
Naomi did.
"You believed Claire's father destroyed them?"
Grant stood.
"This meeting is over."
Claire remained seated.
"The board is meeting at nine."
He froze.
"There is no board meeting today."
"There is now."
Grant looked toward the doors and saw Marcus.
"You think security guards make you powerful?"
Claire finally stood.
"No."
She lifted the black folder.
"Information does."
Grant's voice dropped.
"You have no idea what your father did to keep that company."
"Then tell me."
He leaned closer.
"Ask Ethan why he agreed to meet you at the museum gala."
Claire felt the answer before Grant said it.
"He wasn't there by accident."
Grant walked out.
Claire remained beside the table.
Naomi quietly closed her notebook.
Then Daniel entered from the hall.
"Ethan is asking to see you."
Claire looked at the clock.
7:26 a.m.
"Where?"
"The empty ballroom."
May you like
Daniel hesitated.
"He says he wants to tell you how the two of you really met."
