Chapter 4 - PRESTON DISCOVERED HIS BOARD HAD BEEN TALKING TO ME WITHOUT HIM
At nine Monday morning, Caldwell Strategic held an emergency board meeting.
Preston expected to chair it.
He discovered his access had been temporarily limited when his executive badge failed at the forty-third-floor conference suite.
That detail reached me through Elise.
I was not present.
I didn't need to be.
The Harlow Trust had observer rights under its debt agreements.
Elise attended.
Richard Mercer attended remotely.
Preston's father, Charles Caldwell, attended in person.
And for the first time, Preston had to explain why the company had failed to disclose a material personal relationship connected to a financing partner.
His defense was predictable.
Private matter.
No financial relevance.
No effect on negotiations.
Then Elise produced messages.
Sloane:
Dad will move on the conversion cap if you give him what he wants on governance.
Preston:
I'll handle the board. You handle me tonight.
Not subtle.
Not defensible.
Richard Mercer disconnected from the meeting for eleven minutes after that message was read.
When he returned, he announced Sloane had no formal authority at Mercer Capital.
Elise asked why she had access to confidential deal terms.
No answer.
Preston blamed Sloane.
That was when Sloane stopped protecting Preston.
By lunchtime, Gabriel received copies of messages she voluntarily provided through counsel.
The affair was worse than I knew.
Fourteen months.
Hotels.
Trips.
My anniversary weekend.
The night my mother was hospitalized with pneumonia.
The morning after I told Preston I was pregnant.
That one broke me.
I sat on the floor of Gabriel's office bathroom and cried until I couldn't breathe.
Not because Sloane had won.
Because I remembered that morning.
Two pink lines.
My hands shaking.
Preston lifting me off the floor and laughing.
He had kissed my stomach even though there was nothing to see yet.
“We did it.”
he whispered.
That afternoon, he checked into a hotel with Sloane.
Grief doesn't obey logic.
You can know someone betrayed you and still mourn the version of them you loved.
Gabriel sat outside the bathroom door.
He didn't tell me to stop crying.
Eventually, I opened it.
“I feel stupid.”
“You aren't.”
“I loved him.”
“That isn't stupidity.”
“I missed everything.”
“You saw what he wanted you to see.”
“I should have known.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Trust is not negligence, Vivian.”
I remembered that.
Later, Elise called.
“The board placed Preston on administrative leave.”
I closed my eyes.
“For how long?”
“Pending investigation.”
“And Mercer?”
“Richard wants the financing reinstated.”
“Of course.”
“He offered improved terms.”
“No.”
“That's what I told him.”
I smiled.
Elise knew me.
Then her voice changed.
“There is something else.”
“What?”
“We found irregular payments from Caldwell Strategic.”
“To Sloane?”
“No.”
“Who?”
“A private medical consulting company.”
My stomach tightened.
“What company?”
“Northstar Reproductive Advisory.”
I had never heard of it.
“What does Caldwell Strategic have to do with reproductive medicine?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why are they paying them?”
“We don't know.”
The first payment occurred six weeks after I became pregnant.
The second occurred two days before my ultrasound.
May you like
And the third was scheduled for the following week.
Suddenly my husband's affair was no longer the thing frightening me most.
