Matthew looked at me.
“Liv, I was angry.
I said things I didn’t mean.”
“You sounded very organized.”
“We can fix this.”
“No,” I said.
“You can face it.”
Evelyn turned to the board chairman.
“The directors have sufficient grounds to invoke the emergency suspension provision.”
He nodded and addressed the tablet.
One by one, the directors voted.
Daniel voted first.
“Suspend him.”
The others followed.
When the final vote was counted, Matthew was no longer managing partner of Harrow Development Group.
His access to company accounts, offices, files, and properties was revoked immediately.
Security had already been dispatched to the Manhattan headquarters.
The chairman faced me.
“As representative of the controlling trust, voting authority transfers to you pending a full audit.”
Matthew laughed again, but now the sound was desperate.
“You think she can run a development company?”
I opened the sealed folder.
Inside were signed resolutions naming an interim chief executive and authorizing an independent forensic review.
I had not appointed myself.
I had appointed Elena Ruiz, the chief operating officer Matthew had repeatedly denied a promotion because, according to an email discovered by the investigators, she was “too difficult to control.”
Elena appeared on the tablet from her office.
“The transition team is ready,” she said.
Matthew stared at the screen.
“You planned this with her?”
“No,” I replied.
“I planned it with people who understood the company better than you understood your own risk.”
Evelyn removed another document.
“This is a petition for divorce, along with a temporary order preventing either spouse from transferring marital assets.
It was signed by a judge at eleven this morning.”
She handed the papers to Matthew.
He did not take them.
They fell onto the white tablecloth beside the cake.
His mother began to cry in earnest, but I felt no satisfaction watching her.
Only exhaustion.
Matthew lowered his voice.
“You’re destroying our family before our child is even born.”
“Our family was not destroyed by evidence,” I said.
“It was destroyed by what the evidence proves.”
Vanessa sank into a chair.
The phone hung loosely from her hand.
Evelyn approached her.
“Your cooperation will matter.
The company may pursue civil claims, and law enforcement will determine whether criminal charges are appropriate.
You should obtain independent counsel.”
Vanessa looked at me.
“I knew he was married,” she said.
“I knew you were pregnant.
I told myself he loved me and that made it different.
It didn’t.”
Her apology did not erase anything.
