Chapter 4 - A Grandmother Without Permission
Odette entered the room as though she still owned every space she stepped into.
Sarah moved immediately between her and Lily.
“You leave now.”
Odette ignored her.
“Felix, we need to speak privately.”
“No.”
His voice was flat.
Odette’s gaze shifted to the paper in his hand.
She recognized it.
Her composure cracked.
Only slightly.
But Felix saw it.
“You wrote this.”
Odette straightened.
“That was seven years ago.”
“You knew Sarah was pregnant.”
“I knew she claimed to be pregnant.”
“Do not do that.”
Odette’s eyes narrowed.
“Do what?”
“Turn every fact you dislike into an accusation against the person saying it.”
The monitor beside Lily continued its soft rhythm.
Sarah hated that this conversation was happening beside her daughter.
“Outside.”
Felix nodded.
They stepped into the family consultation room.
Odette shut the door.
“The company is in crisis.”
Felix placed the letter on the table.
“My daughter was nearly killed by food from our company.”
“Your alleged daughter.”
Felix stared at her.
Odette knew immediately she had gone too far.
Felix leaned across the table.
“You will never say that again.”
“Felix, biology does not erase seven years of reality.”
“No.”
He nodded slowly.
“But seven years of your lies explain it.”
Odette looked toward Sarah.
“I protected him.”
Sarah almost laughed.
“From his own child?”
“From a woman who was leaving at the exact moment his career required stability.”
“I wasn’t leaving.”
“You signed.”
“After you threatened me.”
“I offered you security.”
“You paid me to disappear.”
Odette’s expression hardened.
“I paid you for intellectual property that the company developed commercially.”
Sarah stepped closer.
“You paid me two hundred thousand dollars for concepts that produced hundreds of millions.”
“That agreement was legal.”
“Legal and honest are not the same thing.”
Felix looked at his mother.
“Did Celeste know?”
Odette hesitated.
That was enough.
“When?”
“Years later.”
“How much later?”
“She discovered documents during the Marlowe House expansion.”
Felix’s stomach tightened.
“So Celeste knew Lily could be mine.”
“She suspected.”
“And yesterday she approved a menu change at Lily’s school.”
Odette’s face finally changed.
“What?”
Felix pushed the catering sheet toward her.
Odette read the signature.
Sarah watched her.
For the first time, Odette’s concern appeared genuine.
“She would not deliberately hurt a child.”
Felix answered without hesitation.
“You said Sarah would never challenge the company.”
“You were wrong about that.”
“You said I would never walk away from the merger.”
“You were wrong about that too.”
He removed his executive access card.
He placed it beside the letter.
Odette stared at it.
“What are you doing?”
“Until I know what happened to Lily, I am not returning to Kingsley Tower.”
“You are the chief executive.”
“Then replace me.”
Odette’s face hardened.
“If you abandon your position now, the board can invoke the emergency leadership clause.”
“Let them.”
“You could lose control of the company.”
Felix looked through the glass wall toward Lily’s room.
Then he looked back at the empire his mother had spent his entire life teaching him to worship.
“Then I lose it.”
Odette stared at him.
“You do not mean that.”
Felix opened the door.
“Watch me.”
As Odette left, Sarah noticed someone standing at the far end of the hallway.
Celeste.
She wore the same white suit from the boardroom.
In her hands was a bouquet of pale lilies.
Sarah stared at the flowers.
Celeste stared back.
Then she smiled.
May you like
And Sarah knew the worst part of the day might not have happened yet.
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