Chapter 10 - THE MEETING BEFORE MY MOTHER DIED
My mother died in a boating accident off Cape Cod.
That was the story I had lived with for nineteen years.
Thomas gave me a copy of Celeste's calendar.
Three weeks before the accident:
LUNCH - VICTORIA VANCE - PRIVATE.
I had never known our mothers met.
Thomas explained.
Victoria was trying to save the Vance family from a debt crisis even then.
Celeste refused to invest.
But she proposed something else: if one day I chose to marry into the Vance family, any Blackwood capital would be protected through a separate child trust.
"Maya's trust," I whispered.
Thomas nodded.
My mother designed the structure before Maya existed.
Years later, Gideon activated it when she was born.
Victoria knew.
That was why she wanted control of Maya.
Not because she loved her.
Because whoever controlled Maya's trust could influence twenty-two percent of Vance Group.
"Did Victoria cause my mother's accident?"
Thomas shook his head quickly.
"No evidence. None."
I believed the fear in his face.
But he had another confession.
Victoria paid him to hide Celeste's trust design from Julian.
Then Julian paid him to hide it from me.
Thomas took money from both sides for years.
"Why tell me now?"
"Because I saw what Genevieve did to Maya."
I stared at him.
"You saw it and waited."
He looked down.
"Yes."
That answer ended any sympathy I might have had.
He gave investigators the original share ledger.
By evening, the court froze Ross Capital's planned purchase.
Vance Group shares dropped seventeen percent.
Julian went on television and blamed "predatory Blackwood interference."
Then Genevieve appeared beside him.
She denied hitting Maya.
She called the video manipulated.
She called me vindictive.
Then she smiled into the cameras and announced she was pregnant.
Julian took her hand.
The reporter asked when the baby was due.
Genevieve answered.
"Five months."
I did the math.
Then looked at Rachel.
Julian had been sleeping with Genevieve long before our separation.
But that was not the surprise.
May you like
Harrison walked in holding a lab report.
"Eleanor... Genevieve's child may not be Julian's."
