Chapter 15 - Adrian Said the Company Was Already DyingRosalie agreed to meet Adrian.
Not at home.
Katherine insisted on a public hotel lounge with security cameras.
Maren stayed nearby.
Sienna was not told where.
Adrian arrived ten minutes early.
Navy suit.
No tie.
He looked like the man Rosalie married.
That was almost the cruelest part.
People expected betrayal to change a face.
It didn't.
He stood when she approached.
"Thank you."
"Don't."
Rosalie sat across from him.
"Talk."
Adrian exhaled.
"Blackwell is in trouble."
She waited.
"How much trouble?"
"Serious."
"Define serious."
"We lost two major lenders eighteen months ago."
"Why?"
"Commercial exposure."
"How much debt?"
"About forty-two million."
Rosalie stared.
"And you didn't tell me."
"You aren't involved in operations."
"I'm an owner."
"You chose not to be involved."
That hurt because there was truth in it.
Rosalie had trusted him.
Adrian continued.
"If word got out, clients would've left."
"So you created Aster Ridge."
"Yes."
"Why?"
"To move profitable new contracts outside the distressed entities."
"Asset stripping."
"No."
"It sounds like it."
"It was survival."
"Whose?"
"The firm's."
"Then why was Sienna getting thirty percent?"
Adrian looked away.
"Because I planned a new company."
"With her."
"Eventually."
"Using my lake house."
He flinched.
"The loan was temporary."
"I never authorized it."
"You signed the collateral package."
"I signed insurance documents."
"You signed what was presented."
Rosalie stared at him.
That sentence was extraordinary.
"So your defense is that I should have known you were lying about what I was signing?"
"No."
"Then say it."
Adrian rubbed his face.
"I believed you would've agreed if you understood the stakes."
Rosalie felt something inside her become very quiet.
"Adrian."
He looked at her.
"You forged my consent because you believed I would've consented."
"I didn't forge—"
"Stop."
He did.
"Do you hear yourself?"
His expression hardened.
"I saved the company you own twenty-two percent of."
"By stealing against property you don't own."
"I intended to repay it."
"From what?"
"Aster Ridge."
"Which I don't own."
Silence.
There.
Rosalie leaned back.
"That's the point."
Adrian said nothing.
"You moved the valuable future business into something outside Blackwell. You used my asset to fund it. You gave Sienna equity. Then you tried to dilute me in the company carrying the debt."
"That's an oversimplification."
"No. That's the first simple thing I've heard all week."
Adrian's jaw tightened.
"The legacy company was failing."
"So you were going to leave me with the failing company."
"No."
"And leave with Sienna and the new one."
"Rosalie—"
"Tell me I'm wrong."
He couldn't.
She felt grief more than anger.
"How long did you plan this?"
"I didn't plan the affair."
"That's not what I asked."
Adrian stared at the table.
"Aster Ridge existed before Sienna and I became involved."
"So Connor was right."
His eyes lifted.
"You spoke to Connor."
"Yes."
"He's bitter."
"Everyone who knows something about you is apparently bitter."
Adrian almost smiled.
Then stopped.
"Ridge was supposed to protect new business."
"And my shares?"
"I needed flexibility."
"You needed me smaller."
He didn't deny it.
Rosalie continued:
"What was the divorce timing?"
Adrian looked uncomfortable.
"After Blackwell stabilized."
"Why?"
"I didn't want personal litigation to trigger lender concern."
"You wanted to divorce me after you'd moved enough value out."
"That isn't fair."
"Neither was hiding your fiancée in my closet."
His face tightened.
"She told you."
"She showed me the ring."
Adrian looked genuinely irritated.
Not ashamed.
Irritated that Sienna had revealed a confidential promise.
Rosalie saw it.
"Do you love her?"
He looked at her.
"I don't know."
Rosalie almost laughed.
"You proposed."
"I was confused."
"No."
She shook her head.
"Confused people don't commission anniversary necklaces, buy apartments and draft corporate ownership."
Adrian leaned forward.
"You want honesty?"
"That would be new."
"I was in love with the idea of starting over."
That hurt.
He continued.
"With her. With the business. Everything."
"And me?"
Adrian's face softened.
"I love you."
Rosalie closed her eyes.
There it was.
The most useless sentence he could offer.
"I believe you."
He looked surprised.
"I do."
She opened her eyes.
"And that's what makes this worse."
"Rosie—"
"You loved me and still did this."
He had no answer.
She stood.
Adrian said:
"There's one thing you don't understand."
Rosalie paused.
"What?"
"If you trigger your father's control clause, Blackwell's lenders can call defaults."
She turned.
"How do you know about that clause?"
Adrian's face changed.
Too late.
Rosalie stared.
Connor had said Adrian signed it years ago.
But the way Adrian spoke now sounded recent.
Specific.
Prepared.
"Who told you I found it?"
Silence.
Rosalie understood.
Someone inside her side was still talking to him.
And only four people knew she'd found the letter.
Maren.
Katherine.
May you like
Connor.
And Sienna.
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