Chapter 10 - WHAT MY FATHER NEVER TOLD ME
I confronted my father that night.
“What happened in 2009?”
He stopped pouring coffee.
That was all.
But it was enough.
“You know what I'm asking.”
He set the pot down.
“Who told you?”
“Daniel Price.”
My father's expression darkened.
“What did he say?”
“Nothing.”
“Then forget it.”
I stared at him.
“You don't get to say that.”
“Elena.”
“Julian lied to me.”
“Yes.”
“Richard lied to everyone.”
“Yes.”
“Bianca infiltrated our company.”
“Yes.”
“And now you're hiding something too?”
He looked away.
That hurt.
Because my father was many things.
Controlling.
Private.
Old-fashioned.
But with me, he had rarely been dishonest.
“In 2009,” he began, “Richard Mercer came to Vale Capital for emergency financing.”
“You told me.”
“I didn't tell you everything.”
I waited.
“He wasn't simply struggling.”
“What was happening?”
“He had borrowed against employee pension funds.”
My stomach tightened.
“What?”
“His hotel company was collapsing.”
“He used pensions to cover debt?”
“Temporarily, according to him.”
“That isn't temporary.”
“No.”
“So Grandfather reported him?”
My father shook his head.
“The bank discovered it.”
“Then what did we do?”
“We bought the distressed mortgage.”
“Why?”
“To prevent the property from being sold to a developer who intended to demolish it.”
“And Richard blamed us.”
“Yes.”
“But there's more.”
My father closed his eyes for a moment.
“Julian came to see me.”
I stared at him.
“In 2009?”
“He was twenty-four.”
“That was before I met him.”
“Three years before.”
The room seemed to tilt.
“What did he want?”
“To save his father.”
My father told me Julian had arrived alone.
Young.
Angry.
Desperate.
He begged Vale Capital to restructure Richard's debt.
My grandfather refused unless Richard admitted what he had done and stepped away from management.
Richard refused.
Julian returned twice.
The last meeting ended badly.
“He told my father he'd get the hotel back someday.”
My throat tightened.
“And then he met me.”
“Three years later.”
“You knew who he was?”
“Yes.”
“And you never told me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because when you brought him home, I asked if he had approached you because of us.”
My voice fell.
“And?”
“He convinced me he hadn't.”
“How?”
“He was furious when he discovered your real connection to Vale Capital.”
I remembered that.
Six months into our relationship.
Julian discovering my father was Thomas Vale.
He disappeared for two days.
When he returned, he said he felt deceived.
I thought his anger came from learning I was wealthy.
Now I understood there had been another reason.
He knew exactly who my family was.
And he had known before we met.
Or had he?
“Did he know my last name when we met?”
“Vale isn't uncommon.”
“Dad.”
“I don't know.”
That uncertainty frightened me more than certainty.
The marriage I had believed began accidentally might have begun as strategy.
My father opened a drawer.
He removed an envelope.
“I kept this because your grandfather told me to.”
Inside was an old handwritten note.
Julian's handwriting.
I recognized it immediately.
Thomas,
I don't want your money.
I don't want your family's company.
I want one opportunity to prove Richard wrong.
Keep Elena out of this.
She has nothing to do with him.
J.
The date was eight months after Julian and I began dating.
I read it three times.
“What does this mean?”
My father looked exhausted.
“It means that at least once, Julian tried to protect you from his father.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered.
“Elena?”
Julian.
His voice sounded different.
“Where are you?”
“Doesn't matter.”
“Are you with Richard?”
A long pause.
Then he whispered.
“You finally found out.”
“About what?”
“My father.”
“Yes.”
I waited.
“Julian, were you trying to destroy my family?”
His answer came quietly.
“No.”
“Then explain the wall in the lake house.”
Another silence.
“That wasn't my office.”
My skin went cold.
“Whose was it?”
“Bianca's.”
I closed my eyes.
“And the transfers?”
“I moved the money because she was moving more.”
“What?”
“I was trying to get it beyond her reach.”
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because your father would've done exactly what he's doing now.”
“Protecting us?”
“No.”
Julian's voice hardened.
May you like
“Finishing what my father started fifteen years ago.”
Then the line went dead.
