Chapter 6: The Part Where He Tries to Win
Three days later, Adrian called.
I was sitting in Thomas's study, going through the trust documents with Reid, when my phone lit up on the desk beside me.
Adrian's name on the screen.
Reid glanced at it, then at me.
"Your call," he said.
I picked it up.
"Put it on speaker."
Reid nodded.
I answered.
"Evelyn." Adrian's voice was controlled.
He had spent three days preparing this call, I could hear it.
"I think we should talk.
Just the two of us.
Without your brothers running the conversation."
"My brothers aren't in the room," I said.
"What do you want, Adrian?"
A pause.
"I want to fix this."
"There's nothing to fix."
"There is.
I made mistakes.
I know that.
What happened at the party was — I lost control.
I've never done anything like that before and I—"
"You locked the doors," I said.
"You had your security lock the doors so people couldn't leave."
Silence.
"That wasn't—"
"You planned it, Adrian.
You didn't lose control.
You made a series of deliberate choices and you made them in front of fifty witnesses." I kept my voice even.
"The divorce filing was submitted yesterday morning.
You'll have received the documents by now."
"I'm not signing anything."
"You don't have to sign anything yet.
The process moves regardless."
"Evelyn." His tone shifted.
Something harder underneath.
"I know about the provision in your grandmother's trust.
The additional capital.
I know you've been sitting on that for years."
Reid's pen stopped moving.
"I'm sure you have questions about the trust," I said carefully.
"I have a lawyer who has questions about the trust," Adrian said.
"Specifically about whether the funding agreement you had me sign eleven years ago constitutes a form of deliberate financial entrapment.
Because if it does, that changes the nature of the entire marriage contract."
Reid wrote two words on the notepad and turned it toward me: *He's fishing.*
"You're welcome to have your lawyer contact Reid," I said.
"I'm not calling Reid.
I'm calling you." Another shift.
Quieter now.
"Evelyn.
I know I hurt you.
I know what I did was — I know.
But we built something together.
Eleven years.
The house.
The company.
The life.
You want to throw all of that away because of one night?"
"I want to end a marriage that stopped being a marriage approximately nine years ago," I said.
"The night was simply the part that happened in front of witnesses."
"I'll fight the reversion clause."
"You can try."
"I'll tie it up in court for years.
You know I can.
Even with frozen accounts, I have resources you don't know about."
Reid underlined something on his notepad.
I didn't look at it.
"Adrian," I said.
"I'm going to ask you something, and I want you to think carefully before you answer."
A pause.
"What?"
"The Geneva account.
The one Vanessa told my brothers about." I let that sit for a moment.
"Before you decide how hard you want to fight this divorce — I need you to think about whether you want that account examined as part of civil proceedings, or whether you'd prefer it remain a separate matter handled quietly."
The silence that followed was very long.
"What do you know about that account?" he asked finally.
His voice had changed completely.
"I know what Vanessa told us," I said.
"I know what Marcus found in four days of looking.
And I know that Reid has already been in contact with two people who would find the construction tender connection very interesting." I paused.
"I'm not threatening you, Adrian.
I'm telling you the shape of the situation so you can make an informed decision."
Another long silence.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"An uncontested divorce.
A clean separation of assets according to the funding agreement you signed.
Thirty-three employees retained under the restructured entity with their existing contracts honored." I paused.
"And you will never contact me again after the papers are signed."
"And if I agree to that — the Geneva account stays out of it?"
"That depends entirely on what Marcus finds in the next two weeks," I said honestly.
"If it's what we think it is, it was never mine to keep out of anything.
But if you make this difficult, I will make certain that every relevant authority receives everything we have on day one.
If you make it simple, you'll have time to make your own decisions about how to handle it."
The silence stretched.
"I need a week," he said.
"You have three days," I said.
"Reid will be in touch."
I ended the call.
Reid set his pen down.
"You gave him a window," he said.
"I gave him a door," I said.
"What he does with it is up to him."
Reid was quiet for a moment.
"And if he doesn't take it?"
"Then Marcus finishes what he started and we hand everything to the financial crimes unit and let them decide." I picked up the trust document again.
"Either way, it ends."
Reid nodded slowly.
He picked his pen back up.
Then he stopped.
"Evelyn." He was looking at his phone.
"Marcus just sent something."
I looked up.
Reid's expression was not alarmed, exactly.
But it was careful in the way his expressions got when something had changed the shape of a problem.
"The Geneva account," he said.
"Marcus traced the deposit source."
"And?"
Reid turned his phone toward me.
I read the name on the screen.
Then I read it again.
"That's Adrian's father," I said.
"Yes," Reid said.
"Gerald Harmon Cole has been funding a private account for his son."
"Not funding," Reid said.
"Routing.
The money didn't originate with Gerald." He paused.
"It originated with one of the construction tender's subcontractors.
A company that received a government contract because Cole Consulting recommended them." He met my eyes.
"Gerald knew.
He's been managing the routing for fourteen months."
I set the trust document down.
"This isn't just Adrian," I said.
May you like
"No," Reid said quietly.
"It isn't."
