Chapter 18 - THE OFFER BRENDA COULD NOT BELIEVE FIONA REFUSED
Brenda sent three more messages before noon.
The first raised the threat.
The second lowered the demand.
The third tried emotion.
Fiona answered none of them.
At 12:32, Brenda called.
Fiona stared at the screen.
Rachel Kim sat beside her.
Evelyn sat across the table.
Damian stood near the window.
Gertrude was not present.
Fiona looked at Rachel.
"Can I answer?"
"Yes."
"Can we record?"
"Arizona is a one-party consent state, but we also need to consider where Brenda is located."
Evelyn lifted a second phone.
"Federal investigators are prepared to monitor with appropriate process if she calls again."
The call stopped.
Then immediately began again.
Rachel nodded.
"Answer."
Fiona put the call on speaker.
"Hello, Brenda."
Brenda's voice sounded breathless.
"You think you're very smart right now."
Fiona said nothing.
"Did you hear me?"
"Yes."
"Then answer."
"You did not ask a question."
Damian almost smiled.
Brenda heard the calmness and became angrier.
"You destroyed my mother."
Fiona's face tightened.
"Your mother signed false statements because she chose to."
"You turned Damian against us."
"You forged my name."
"I did not forge anything."
"Then why do you want me to confess to it?"
Silence.
Brenda changed tactics.
"You don't understand what you are doing to Damian."
Fiona looked at him.
"I think I understand more than I used to."
"He will lose everything."
Damian said nothing.
Fiona replied, "Then he will learn whether he is still valuable without it."
The line echoed the words she had told him when his first business failed.
Damian lowered his head.
Brenda laughed.
"There it is."
"What?"
"Your little poverty romance."
Fiona's expression changed.
"Excuse me?"
"You always loved that story."
Brenda's voice became mocking.
"You and Damian counting pennies. You selling the precious bracelet. You feeding him soup."
Damian's hands curled at his sides.
Fiona remained calm.
"What does that have to do with this?"
"Everything."
"Explain."
"You think being there when he was poor means you own what he became."
Fiona's face went still.
"I never said that."
"You own twelve percent because of four thousand eight hundred dollars."
"I own twelve percent because the agreement says I do."
"You know what I mean."
Fiona gave a tired smile.
"That phrase is very popular in your family."
Brenda ignored it.
"Do you know what twelve percent is worth now?"
"Yes."
"Of course you do."
"My accountant can multiply."
Rachel covered a smile.
Brenda's anger sharpened.
"You do not deserve it."
Fiona looked at Damian.
Then she asked, "Why?"
"Because Damian built the hotels."
"I agree."
Brenda stopped.
"What?"
"Damian built the hotels."
Fiona spoke calmly.
"He took enormous risks. He worked brutal hours. He made brilliant decisions and terrible ones. He earned his ownership."
She paused.
"And I earned mine."
Brenda scoffed.
"By marrying him?"
"No."
Fiona's voice hardened.
"By investing before there was anything worth stealing."
Silence.
"That is what bothers you, isn't it?"
Brenda said nothing.
Fiona continued.
"I was there before the status existed."
"Stop talking like a martyr."
"I am not."
"You always do this."
"Do what?"
"Make yourself the good one."
Brenda's voice cracked.
"The sweet wife. The generous lady. The employee saint."
Fiona heard something beneath the rage now.
Shame.
Jealousy.
"I never asked you to compare yourself to me."
"You didn't have to."
"Then why did you?"
Brenda was silent.
For several seconds, only faint engine noise came through the line.
Then Brenda spoke more quietly.
"Because every time Damian looked at you, I remembered what my marriage wasn't."
Fiona's expression softened despite herself.
Damian looked away.
Brenda continued.
"You had nothing and he still chose you."
Her voice broke.
"I had everything and my husband still left."
There it was.
Not an excuse.
But the wound under the cruelty.
Fiona said, "Your divorce did not make you do this."
"I know."
The words surprised everyone.
Then Brenda laughed bitterly.
"But it made it easier to hate you."
Fiona closed her eyes.
"Where are you?"
Brenda immediately hardened.
"Nice try."
"I am not trying to trap you."
"Of course you are."
"Then why call me?"
Silence.
Fiona waited.
Brenda whispered, "Because I need the agreement signed."
"Why?"
"Because the accounts are frozen."
"Then return what you stole."
"I can't."
"Why?"
"Vincent moved most of it."
Evelyn wrote something on a legal pad and slid it toward Fiona.
Ask who controls accounts.
Fiona asked, "Who can move it now?"
"I don't know."
"Brenda."
"I said I don't know."
"Then why threaten me with making it disappear?"
Another silence.
Brenda breathed out.
"Fine."
Her voice was lower now.
"I can access one account."
"How much?"
"About three hundred thousand."
"Foundation money?"
"Some."
"How much?"
"I don't know."
"Stop lying."
Fiona's voice sharpened for the first time.
"You know exactly how much because you built this around numbers."
Brenda snapped, "Two hundred twelve thousand."
Evelyn wrote again.
Account location.
Fiona asked, "Which bank?"
Brenda laughed.
"You really think I am that stupid?"
Damian muttered under his breath, "Historically, yes."
Fiona shot him a look.
He raised both hands and went silent.
Brenda continued.
"Sign the agreement and I will return every dollar I can reach."
Fiona looked at Rachel.
Rachel shook her head.
Fiona already knew.
"No."
"Then you are choosing money over people."
Fiona almost laughed.
"That is what you are going with?"
"Harbor House needs funds."
"Harbor House closed."
"Repairs cost money."
"I will find it."
"With Damian's money?"
"No."
"Then how?"
Fiona looked at Damian.
"By selling something."
Damian frowned.
He did not know what she meant.
Brenda laughed.
"There it is again."
"What?"
"The bracelet story."
Fiona's eyes hardened.
"No."
She looked at the expensive watch on her wrist.
Damian had given it to her for their fifteenth anniversary.
She unclasped it.
"This time I have better inventory."
Damian stared.
Brenda heard the movement but did not understand.
Fiona continued.
"I have jewelry I do not wear. A car I do not need. Clothes that cost more than some families spend on rent."
She looked at Damian.
"I can fund repairs without surrendering my name."
Damian felt the truth of his old mistake all over again.
He had filled her life with objects.
Now she could turn those objects into something useful.
Brenda's voice became bitter.
"And Damian will let you sell his gifts?"
Fiona looked at him.
Damian answered for himself.
"They are hers."
Brenda went silent.
Damian continued.
"A gift is not a leash."
Fiona's eyes filled.
He had not known she needed to hear that.
Apparently, she had.
Brenda recovered.
"You two are pathetic."
Fiona said quietly, "Maybe."
"You think this fixes your marriage?"
"No."
Brenda sounded surprised.
Fiona continued.
"This does not fix anything."
She looked at Damian.
"It gives us a chance to stop making it worse."
Damian did not speak.
Brenda's breathing became uneven.
"If I come back, Mother will sacrifice me to save herself."
Fiona replied, "Your mother already told the truth in court."
"Exactly."
"Then tell yours."
"And go to prison?"
"I cannot tell you what will happen."
"Easy for you."
"No."
Fiona's voice hardened.
"Easy would be signing your agreement and pretending you did not do this."
A long silence followed.
Then Brenda whispered, "Vincent has the hard drive copy."
Evelyn froze.
Fiona asked, "Where?"
"I don't know."
"You took the drive from the house."
"It wasn't the only one."
"What is on it?"
Brenda exhaled.
"Emails. Drafts. Bank instructions."
"What else?"
"Board communications."
Damian stepped closer to the speaker.
"Which directors?"
Brenda heard him.
"Of course you're there."
"Which directors?"
"Ask Peter Rowe."
Damian's face changed.
"Peter was in the plan from the beginning?"
Brenda laughed softly.
"Peter wrote half of it."
Damian went still.
The interim CEO.
The man now running the company.
Brenda continued.
"He wanted your job. Vincent wanted the company weak. Mother wanted Fiona gone."
"And you?" Damian asked.
Another pause.
"I wanted my debts gone."
The honesty was almost shocking.
Damian asked, "What did Peter get?"
"CEO position and equity after the Hale investment."
"How much?"
"Three percent."
Damian looked at Evelyn.
She was already writing.
Brenda suddenly said, "I have to go."
Fiona spoke quickly.
"Brenda."
"What?"
"Do not destroy the drive."
"Why should I care what you want?"
"Because right now it is the only thing proving Vincent used you too."
Silence.
Fiona continued.
"You did terrible things."
"Thank you."
"But you are still allowed to tell the truth about what others did."
Brenda did not answer.
Then the call ended.
Evelyn immediately contacted investigators with the new information about Peter Rowe.
Within an hour, the special committee suspended him as interim CEO.
Susan Park was appointed acting executive chair pending a new vote.
The company issued a statement.
Markets and lenders reacted cautiously.
But the panic did not become collapse.
That evening, Fiona went to the estate for the first time since leaving.
Not to move back.
To collect jewelry.
Damian walked with her to the bedroom.
She opened the safe.
Boxes filled two shelves.
Diamonds.
Gold.
Designer watches.
Pieces Damian had bought in airports because he missed anniversaries.
Pieces assistants had selected because he was too busy to shop.
Fiona touched one necklace.
"Do you remember giving me this?"
Damian stared.
"Tokyo?"
"Dallas."
"Right."
He looked ashamed.
Fiona put it in a bag marked AUCTION.
"This one?"
"Paris?"
"Your assistant sent it while you were in Paris."
Damian closed his eyes.
"I am sorry."
Fiona nodded.
"I know."
She packed another bracelet.
Then she reached the back of the safe.
Her hand stopped.
"What?" Damian asked.
She pulled out a small velvet box.
Inside was a simple silver bracelet.
Damian stared.
"That can't be."
Fiona's eyes filled.
"It isn't the same one."
"I bought it back?"
"No."
She shook her head.
"My grandmother had two."
Fiona held it carefully.
"My mother found the second one after Grandma died and gave it to me three years after Meridian failed."
Damian touched the edge of the box.
"Why have I never seen it?"
"Because I was afraid if I wore it, something would happen to it."
He smiled sadly.
"You're selling everything else and keeping the cheap one."
Fiona looked at him.
"This is the valuable one."
Damian understood.
He stepped back.
"Keep it."
"I was going to."
"Good."
They finished packing in silence.
At the bedroom door, Fiona looked around.
"This room never felt like mine."
Damian's chest tightened.
"What would make it feel like yours?"
She shook her head.
"I don't know yet."
Then her phone rang.
Evelyn.
Fiona answered.
"We found Brenda," Evelyn said.
"Where?"
"She never left Arizona."
Damian and Fiona looked at each other.
"Where is she?"
"At a private medical clinic outside Tucson."
Fiona frowned.
"Why?"
Evelyn's voice softened.
"She had a panic attack after the flight was stopped for mechanical inspection."
"Is she under arrest?"
"No."
"Then what happens?"
"She asked for a lawyer."
A pause.
"And she asked to speak to you."
Fiona looked at Damian.
"Me?"
May you like
"Only you."
