Chapter 7: Tessa's Version
Ruth answered on the second ring, listened for three seconds, and held the phone out to Emma.
"She says she'll go to your mother if you don't talk to her."
Emma took the phone.
"Tessa."
"You're at your office." Tessa's voice had shifted since the harbor.
The calm was gone.
Something rawer underneath.
"You're with that man.
Adrian."
"Yes."
"Emma, whatever he's shown you, whatever he's told you — he has his own reasons.
The Marstons don't do anything without a reason."
"I know that."
"Then you know he's using you."
"For what?"
A pause.
"Cole is supposed to inherit controlling interest in Marston Properties when Gerald retires.
Adrian gets the shipping division.
But if Cole is disgraced — if this becomes a scandal — Gerald restructures.
Adrian gets everything."
Emma looked at Adrian across the desk.
He was watching her.
He hadn't moved.
"Is that what he told you?" Emma said.
"It's what I know.
Cole told me months ago.
He said Adrian had always resented him.
That Adrian thought Cole was too reckless to run the property side."
"And you believed him."
"Why wouldn't I?"
"Because Cole also told you that sabotaging my career would fix things between you," Emma said.
"And you believed that too."
Silence.
"Tessa.
Did you ask him to pull the Harborview contract?"
"I told him I was scared you were going to leave us all behind." Her voice cracked slightly.
"I didn't tell him to destroy anything.
I said I was scared.
He made the decision."
"You knew he did it."
"Yes."
"And you said nothing."
"Emma—"
"You planned my bridal shower three weeks after he pulled that contract.
You drove me to the venue.
You sat across from me and helped me choose the centerpieces."
The line was quiet for a long time.
"I thought it would all work out," Tessa said finally.
"I thought once you were married you wouldn't care about that account anymore.
You'd have other things."
"You thought I'd be too busy being a wife to notice what I'd lost."
Tessa didn't answer.
Emma felt something settle inside her.
Not anger.
Anger had been the first layer.
This was something underneath it — a clear, cold understanding of exactly what her sister had believed about her.
That she was the kind of woman who could be managed.
Redirected.
Given enough to be content.
"I'm not signing Gerald's agreement," Emma said.
"And I'm going to get Harborview back."
"Emma, if you do this — if you go after Cole publicly — it will destroy our family."
"You should have thought about that five months ago."
"Please." Tessa's voice dropped.
"Please don't do this.
I'll lose him."
Emma closed her eyes for one second.
"Goodbye, Tessa."
She handed the phone back to Ruth.
Ruth set it in the cradle and looked at her.
"She said Adrian is using you," Ruth said.
"To get Cole's inheritance."
"I know."
"Is she right?"
Emma looked at Adrian.
"Are you?"
He held her gaze.
"If I wanted to destroy Cole's position in the company, I've had years to do it.
I didn't need you."
"That's not a no."
"No," he said.
"I'm not using you.
What happens to Cole's inheritance is between Cole and my father.
I'm here because I've been watching my brother become someone I don't respect, and I didn't stop it when I could have, and I owe you for that."
Ruth looked between them.
"All right," she said.
She picked up the email from the desk.
"Then let's talk about Harborview."
Emma's phone buzzed one more time.
A text from Cole: *I need to explain.
Please.
Before you do anything, let me explain.*
May you like
She set the phone face-down.
"Let's talk about Harborview," she said.
