I held up the paper.
“And this release would have protected you from whatever you did with my name.”
“No.”
Richard answered for him.
“Yes.”
Adrian turned.
“You don’t know that.”
Richard’s voice dropped.
“I spent thirty-three years reading contracts people hoped I wouldn’t read carefully.”
He pointed at the release language.
“That clause is there for one reason.”
Sienna backed away from Adrian.
He noticed.
“Sienna.”
She shook her head.
“You told me she knew about the investment.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
Sienna’s eyes filled with panic.
“He told me you knew.”
Adrian stepped toward her.
“Stop.”
She looked at him.
“You said Maren agreed.”
“Sienna.”
“You said the money was hers and she approved it.”
The room changed again.
For the first time, Sienna no longer looked like the woman who had arrived to replace me.
She looked like someone realizing she might have been used too.
I stood.
Adrian immediately looked at me.
“Maren, sit down.”
I almost laughed.
“No.”
“I need five minutes.”
“You had nine years.”
His jaw tightened.
“This isn’t about our marriage.”
“It became about our marriage when my name appeared on a document I never signed.”
“I can fix that.”
Richard said, “You can’t.”
Adrian spun toward him.
“You don’t know what I can fix.”
“I removed you from company authority this afternoon.”
Adrian froze.
No one breathed.
Richard’s voice remained calm.
“Effective at four o’clock.”
The color drained from Adrian’s face.
“You can’t do that.”
“I already did.”
“I’m an officer.”
“You were.”
“You need the board.”
“I had the board.”
Adrian stared at him.
Richard continued.
“Emergency meeting. Three-thirty.”
“You called a board meeting on your anniversary?”
“I called one after learning my son may have exposed the company and his wife to millions of dollars in liability.”
Adrian’s hands curled into fists.
“You humiliated me.”
Richard looked around the room.
Then back at him.
“You brought your mistress to your mother’s fortieth anniversary dinner and announced her as your new partner in front of your wife.”
He pointed toward the door.
“You managed humiliation without my assistance.”
Nobody spoke.
Sienna quietly picked up her purse.
“I’m leaving.”
Adrian turned.
“Don’t.”
She looked at him.
“Did you sign her name?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
He didn’t answer.
That was the question.
Not whether the signature was false.
Who had actually put it there?
Sienna stared at him.
“Adrian.”
“I said I didn’t.”
“Who did?”
His eyes moved toward the table.
Not toward me.
Not toward Richard.
Toward someone else.
I followed his gaze.
At the far end of the table sat Nathan Caldwell.
Adrian’s cousin.
Chief financial officer of Caldwell Development.
Nathan had barely spoken all evening.
Now his face was white.
Richard noticed too.
“Nathan?”
Nathan slowly stood.
“I think everyone needs to calm down.”
Adrian immediately said, “Sit down.”
That was all I needed to hear.
Richard stared between them.
“What did you do?”
Nathan looked at Adrian.
“Tell him.”
Adrian said nothing.
Nathan laughed nervously.
“You said this wouldn’t happen.”
My heartbeat accelerated.
“What wouldn’t happen?” I asked.
Nathan looked at me.
“I’m sorry.”
Adrian stepped toward him.
“Shut your mouth.”
Richard moved between them.
“No.”
His voice was quiet now.
Far more dangerous than shouting.
“He talks.”
Nathan swallowed.
Then he looked at me.
“I signed it.”
The words landed softly.
Almost politely.
I stared at him.
“You forged my signature?”
His eyes dropped.
“Yes.”
Evelyn gasped.
Camille stood.
Richard didn’t move.
“Why?”
Nathan looked toward Adrian.
“Because he told me Maren had already agreed.”
I laughed.
I couldn’t help it.
Everyone looked at me.
It wasn’t amusement.
It was disbelief finally finding a sound.
“You forged my signature because my husband told you I agreed?”
Nathan’s face reddened.
“He said the paperwork was delayed.”
“What paperwork?”
“The authorization from your trust.”
“There was no authorization.”
“I know that now.”
“Did you know it then?”
Nathan didn’t answer.
I stepped closer.
“Did you know it then?”
“Yes.”
That was the moment I stopped seeing him as someone Adrian had manipulated.
He knew.
Maybe not everything.
But enough.
Richard pulled out a chair.
“Sit down, Nathan.”
Nathan obeyed.
Adrian did not.
He was moving toward the door.
Richard said his name.
Adrian stopped.
“If you leave now,” Richard said, “I will assume every allegation in this file is accurate.”
Adrian turned slowly.
“You’re my father.”
“Yes.”
“Then act like it.”
Richard’s face hardened.
“I am.”
He pointed at me.
“And I am also the man who watched her spend eight years treating this family like her own.”
Then he pointed at the papers.
“You don’t get to ask me to be your father only when being your father requires me to ignore what you did.”
Adrian stared at him.
For the first time that evening, I saw something close to fear.
Not fear of losing me.
Fear of losing everything else.
His position.
His father’s protection.
The company.
His reputation.
Maybe Sienna.
I suddenly understood why he had been so calm when he walked in.
He thought he controlled the evening.
He thought he was announcing the future.
Instead, his father had arrived at the table holding the past.
I looked at Richard.
“I need copies of everything.”
“You’ll have them.”
Adrian shook his head.
“No.”
I turned.
“No?”
“Those documents involve the company.”
“They involve my signature.”
“My attorney needs to review them first.”
I stared at him.
