Chapter 4 - The Mistress Who Knew Too MuchKhloe Mercer was easy to hate.
That detail stayed with me.
Her son had been arrested.
Her granddaughter had been locked in a freezing basement.
Her daughter-in-law was being examined for broken ribs, a concussion, and injuries across both arms.
And Victoria arrived at two in the morning looking as if she were attending brunch at the Carlyle.
She didn’t ask to see Penny.
She asked to see me.
Daniel refused.
Victoria insisted.
Eventually I agreed.
Not because I wanted comfort.
Because I wanted to see whether guilt appeared in her face when she looked at me.
It didn’t.
She entered my hospital room carrying a black leather handbag.
“Eleanor.”
“Emma.”
Her lips tightened.
“So it’s true.”
Daniel stood beside the window.
Two attorneys were outside the door.
Victoria glanced at him.
“Mr. Price.”
“Mrs. Blackwood.”
“You’ve aged.”
“So has your empire.”
Victoria looked back at me.
“What happened tonight is unforgivable.”
I waited.
“Julian lost control.”
There it was.
Not Julian assaulted you.
Not Julian endangered Penny.
Julian had simply lost control.
“I want you to know,” she continued, “Arthur and I will make certain you receive whatever care you require.”
“My daughter requires a father who doesn’t lock her underground.”
Victoria’s jaw tightened.
“Julian needs treatment.”
“Julian needs consequences.”
Her voice softened.
“Emma, families like ours survive because private matters remain private.”
Daniel actually laughed.
Victoria ignored him.
“I’m offering you protection.”
“From whom?”
“You know how the media works.”
“No,” I said. “You’re offering protection from embarrassment.”
She placed her handbag on the chair.
“There is no reason Penny’s life should become a spectacle.”
That was clever.
Use my daughter.
Make silence sound maternal.
Ten years earlier, it might have worked.
Not anymore.
“Victoria, why are you using Meridian-linked shell companies?”
For the first time, she stopped breathing normally.
Daniel noticed too.
“I have no idea what you mean.”
“You’ve been moving money.”
“Absurd.”
“Through Halcyon Consulting, North Quay Ventures, and Bellrose Holdings.”
Her fingers tightened around the chair.
Those three names were not public.
Daniel folded his arms.
Victoria looked from him to me.
“This is inappropriate.”
“So is money laundering.”
“I am leaving.”
She turned.
“Sit down.”
She stopped.
I had not raised my voice.
I didn’t need to.
Something from my old life returned in that moment.
The part of me boardrooms had once feared.
Victoria slowly turned back.
“Excuse me?”
“You came here because you want silence.”
I leaned against the pillows.
“If you want even the possibility of a conversation, sit down.”
She sat.
Daniel gave me the smallest smile.
“How long?” I asked.
Victoria said nothing.
“How long have you known who I really am?”
“I suspected before the wedding.”
My stomach dropped.
Julian hadn’t known.
But Victoria had.
“How?”
“Your face.”
“My face?”
“I attended a conference in Geneva years ago. You spoke on a panel.”
I remembered.
I had been twenty-nine.
“You disappeared from the financial world soon afterward,” Victoria said. “When Julian introduced you, I recognized you.”
“And you said nothing.”
“You seemed determined to reinvent yourself.”
“So you respected my privacy?”
Victoria smiled faintly.
“No.”
At least she was finally being truthful.
“I saw an opportunity.”
Daniel moved away from the window.
“What opportunity?”
“The Sterling network had relationships Blackwood International lacked.”
I felt cold.
“You encouraged Julian to marry me.”
“I didn’t need to. He loved you.”
Loved.
The word felt obscene.
“But I did encourage Arthur to restructure several financing arrangements through Meridian affiliates.”
Daniel’s face hardened.
“You hid beneficial ownership.”
Victoria shrugged.
“Business is rarely sentimental.”
“And when Emma left operational control, you thought no one would notice.”
“I assumed Sterling Meridian was being managed by professionals.”
“It was.”
His tone sharpened.
“That is why we noticed.”
Victoria stared at him.
“When?”
“Eight months ago.”
The same time I contacted Daniel.
He had been investigating separately.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.
“Because you asked me not to intervene unless you were in danger.”
“I was already in danger.”
“I know that now.”
Regret crossed his face.
I understood it.
I had hidden too much.
We all had.
Victoria stood.
“I came here to prevent a family tragedy from becoming a corporate war.”
“You’re too late.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“Be careful, Emma.”
Daniel stepped forward.
Victoria raised one hand.
“I’m not threatening her.”
“Yes, you are.”
She looked at me.
“Blackwood International employs forty-two thousand people. If you recklessly pull financing to punish Julian, thousands of innocent families could suffer.”
That landed.
She knew it would.
I had no desire to destroy employees because my husband was cruel.
“I won’t burn your company down.”
Victoria relaxed slightly.
“But I will find every illegal dollar you moved.”
The relief disappeared.
“And if I find that you knowingly used my companies to hide it, I’ll give the evidence to whoever has jurisdiction.”
“Even if it destroys Penny’s inheritance?”
I stared at her.
“Penny nearly froze in your son’s basement.”
Victoria said nothing.
“My daughter doesn’t need your inheritance.”
For the first time, anger cracked through her polished expression.
“You think you’re better than us.”
“No.”
I touched the bruise near my jaw.
“I think I’m finished being afraid of you.”
She left without another word.
At dawn, doctors confirmed that Penny was physically unharmed aside from mild hypothermia.
She slept beside me with one hand around my finger.
Julian remained in custody.
Khloe had been questioned but released.
Arthur went home.
Victoria disappeared.
At seven in the morning, Daniel brought coffee.
“I found something.”
He placed a tablet in front of me.
A transfer record.
Twenty-eight million dollars.
Sent through Halcyon Consulting.
Destination: Mercer Advisory Group.
Khloe’s company.
“How much total?”
“Over fourteen months? Nearly ninety million.”
My stomach turned.
“This isn’t an affair.”
“No.”
“Khloe is working with Victoria.”
“That’s what it looks like.”
“Why?”
Daniel swiped to another document.
A corporate acquisition proposal.
Blackwood International intended to purchase a European logistics company called Ardent Shipping.
The asking price was $1.8 billion.
I studied the structure.
Something was wrong.
“Who owns Ardent?”
“That’s the interesting part.”
Daniel enlarged a diagram.
Six holding companies.
Four jurisdictions.
Two trusts.
Then the final beneficial owner.
I stared at the name.
The Victoria Blackwood Family Preservation Trust.
“She’s planning to make Blackwood International buy a company she secretly owns.”
“For almost two billion dollars.”
“That would transfer company money directly into her control.”
Daniel nodded.
“Arthur doesn’t know.”
“And Julian?”
“We don’t know.”
I thought about Khloe.
Her fake screenshots.
The confrontation.
The timing.
Then another possibility struck me.
“What happens if Julian and I divorce?”
Daniel studied me.
“Depends on your agreements.”
“Victoria insisted on a revised postnuptial arrangement six months ago.”
“Did you sign?”
“No.”
His eyebrows rose.
“She kept pushing.”
“What did it contain?”
“I barely reviewed it. Most of it involved ownership waivers.”
Daniel sat straighter.
“Emma, where is it?”
“At home.”
Police still controlled the townhouse.
We obtained permission to retrieve personal records that afternoon.
Daniel sent one of our attorneys.
She returned with the unsigned agreement.
Twenty minutes later, Daniel entered my hospital room looking furious.
“What?”
He handed me the document.
“Page forty-seven.”
I read it.
Then read it again.
Under the agreement, if Julian and I separated, I would surrender any claim or voting interest connected to entities that had provided financing to Blackwood International.
Including any undisclosed beneficial ownership.
Victoria hadn’t merely discovered my identity.
She had been trying to make me sign away the leverage attached to it.
“She knew exactly what Sterling Meridian controlled.”
“Yes.”
“And Khloe?”
“She may have been sent to destabilize the marriage.”
I looked at Penny sleeping.
My husband’s betrayal had seemed personal.
Now it looked engineered.
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
Daniel nodded for me to answer on speaker.
“Hello?”
A woman breathed heavily.
“Emma?”
I recognized the voice.
Khloe.
“Where are you?”
“I need help.”
Daniel began tracing the call.
Khloe whispered, “You don’t understand what’s happening.”
“Then explain it.”
“Victoria said Julian would scare you into signing.”
My blood went cold.
“She never said he would hurt Penny.”
Daniel’s eyes met mine.
“Where are you, Khloe?”
A noise sounded behind her.
She gasped.
“They found me.”
“Who?”
“Victoria’s people.”
The line crackled.
Then Khloe screamed.
A door slammed.
Before the call disconnected, she shouted six words.
“Don’t let them buy Ardent Shipping!”
The line went dead.
Daniel stared at the phone.
I looked out across Manhattan as morning sunlight turned the windows gold.
Julian had locked me in a basement because he believed his mistress.
May you like
But the mistress had been another piece on the board.
And the woman moving the pieces was his mother.
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