Chapter 6 - Silas Had Known for Eleven DaysMaddox did not shout.
That was worse.
“You knew.”
Silas nodded.
“For how long?”
“Eleven days.”
“And said nothing.”
“I was trying to verify it.”
Maddox laughed bitterly.
“You needed laboratory analysis?”
“I saw them once.”
“Where?”
“At the Harpeth Hotel.”
One of Mercer Development's properties.
Maddox felt humiliated by the detail.
His wife and his CFO had met inside a hotel his family owned.
“What did you see?”
Silas hesitated.
Maddox snapped:
“Don't protect me now.”
“They kissed in the underground garage.”
Brielle turned away.
Nathan stared at the floor.
Maddox's hands trembled.
“You followed them?”
“No. I was meeting the renovation manager.”
“And?”
“I saw Nathan's car. Thought he was there for work. Then Brielle came out.”
Maddox closed his eyes.
“Why didn't you call me?”
“Because after Dad died, you spent years thinking every problem was an emergency. I wanted proof before I detonated your marriage.”
“Instead you let me walk around like an idiot.”
“No.”
“It feels like it.”
Silas absorbed that.
“I am sorry.”
Maddox looked at Brielle.
“Was the affair why you needed Silas gone?”
“Partly.”
“Partly.”
She inhaled.
“He was going to tell you.”
“That's what brothers usually do.”
“He was going to destroy Ivy's family.”
Maddox stared.
“No.”
His voice was calm.
“You did.”
Brielle flinched.
Nathan stepped forward.
“This is on me too.”
Maddox looked at him.
“Do not make yourself noble now.”
Nathan stopped.
“You slept with my wife.”
“Yes.”
“You helped her take money.”
“Yes.”
“You lied to me every day.”
“Yes.”
“And somehow you want credit for admitting it after a camera caught her framing my brother?”
Nathan lowered his head.
“No.”
“Good.”
Maddox looked toward the baby camera.
His daughter's camera.
The irony felt cruel.
Ivy was downstairs with Maddox's mother, Eleanor, who had come over earlier to watch her while Maddox met with Silas about family business.
Eleanor had no idea what was happening upstairs.
Maddox almost laughed.
Of course she didn't.
That seemed to be the Mercer family tradition.
Everyone protected everyone with secrecy until the secrecy became the danger.
“What happens now?” Brielle asked.
Maddox looked at her.
“You leave.”
Her face changed.
“This is my home.”
“Tonight, you leave.”
“You can't throw me out.”
“I can ask you to stay somewhere else while I figure out whether my wife tried to steal from my company and send my brother to prison.”
“I never wanted him arrested.”
“You screamed that he attacked you.”
“I wanted you to believe me.”
Maddox stared.
“That sentence should frighten you.”
Brielle started crying harder.
“I was desperate.”
“Why?”
“Because Silas had everything.”
“What?”
“Your trust.”
Maddox frowned.
Silas went still.
Brielle looked at him.
“Tell him.”
Maddox turned.
“What trust?”
Silas swore quietly.
Another secret.
Maddox almost walked out.
Instead he laughed.
“Of course.”
Silas said:
“Dad's letter wasn't only a letter.”
“You said it was.”
“I said he left me a letter.”
“What else?”
“A key.”
“To?”
“Safe-deposit box.”
Maddox stared.
“What was inside?”
Silas looked at Brielle.
She smiled bitterly.
“Now he's trapped.”
Maddox ignored her.
“Silas.”
“Company shares.”
Silence.
“How many?”
“Ten percent.”
Maddox could not process it.
Everett's estate had publicly divided his ownership:
Maddox forty-five percent.
Silas forty percent.
Eleanor fifteen percent.
That was the structure they had used for five years.
“You have another ten?”
“Not exactly.”
“What does not exactly mean?”
“The shares sit in a voting trust.”
“For whom?”
Silas's voice lowered.
“For Ivy.”
Maddox went completely still.
“My daughter?”
“Yes.”
“Why would Dad leave shares to a granddaughter who wasn't born?”
Silas shook his head.
“He didn't name Ivy.”
“Then?”
“The trust says the shares go to the first grandchild born to either of us.”
Maddox stared.
Ivy was born two years after Everett died.
Meaning since her birth, ten percent of Mercer Development had legally belonged for her benefit.
“Who is trustee?”
Silas.
Of course.
Maddox laughed bitterly.
“You control my daughter's shares.”
“Until she turns twenty-five or certain conditions change.”
“And nobody told me.”
“Dad specifically told me not to tell either future parent until the first grandchild was born and the shares vested.”
“She was born three years ago.”
“I know.”
“Why still hide it?”
Silas looked ashamed.
“Because of another condition.”
Maddox waited.
“If the parent of the first grandchild divorces, dies, or is deemed financially unfit, the trust keeps those shares outside the marital estate.”
Brielle smiled without humor.
“Now you understand.”
Maddox looked at her.
She continued.
“Those shares are worth tens of millions.”
“Not yours.”
“No.”
Her voice sharpened.
“Never mine.”
Maddox felt something click.
The resentment he had heard earlier.
Your company.
Your family.
Nothing is mine.
She knew about Ivy's trust.
“How?”
Brielle looked at Nathan.
Nathan answered.
“We found distributions connected to the trust during the Blue Hollow review.”
Maddox stared.
“And you told her.”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Six months ago.”
The affair began eight months ago.
The trust discovery came two months later.
Maddox's mind arranged events.
Brielle discovered she could never access Ivy's shares through marriage.
Then she began moving money through Hartwell.
Silas started investigating.
She needed Silas discredited.
If Silas was accused of sexual assault, could he remain trustee?
Probably not.
Maddox looked at his brother.
“You're trustee until when?”
“Until Ivy is twenty-five.”
“Unless you're removed.”
“Yes.”
“For misconduct?”
“Yes.”
Silence.
Brielle's plan was no longer mysterious.
It was brutally logical.
Accuse Silas of attacking her.
Maddox turns against him.
Silas is removed from company operations and perhaps the trust.
Then who becomes replacement trustee?
Silas looked at Brielle.
“That's the part you haven't told him.”
Maddox's stomach tightened.
“Who?”
Silas answered.
May you like
“Nathan Cole.”
Maddox slowly turned toward the man who had been sleeping with his wife.
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