Chapter 8 - The Wedding Document
We left the house shortly after midnight.
Dad took Lily and me to a hotel he owned near downtown Dallas.
For the first time since the plate had flown across the dining room, I was alone in a quiet room.
Lily fell asleep almost immediately.
I sat beside her bed and watched her breathe.
My phone contained twenty-three missed calls from Ryan.
Then came the messages.
Please talk to me.
You’re overreacting.
We can fix this.
Charles is using you.
Think about Lily.
Then the tone changed.
If you freeze the sale, hundreds of employees could lose their jobs.
Then.
This will be your fault.
I turned the phone facedown.
At 1:17 a.m., Naomi knocked.
She had found the proxy.
I read it at the small table by the window.
My signature was real.
Dated twelve years earlier.
Three days before my wedding.
I remembered that afternoon.
Ryan had brought a stack of documents to my apartment.
He told me his father’s lawyers needed them before we married.
I had signed while packing for our honeymoon.
I never read them carefully.
The proxy allowed Ryan to vote certain trust-held company shares on my behalf.
My heart sank.
“So he can sell?”
Naomi turned to page seven.
“Maybe not.”
A clause near the bottom limited his authority.
The proxy remained valid only while Ryan acted in good faith and had no material conflict of interest with the trust beneficiary.
Forgery.
Unauthorized borrowing.
Diversion of funds.
Any one could terminate his authority.
All three together could destroy it.
“But we need proof.”
Naomi nodded.
“Strong proof.”
I thought of the signature practice sheets.
The missing money.
The letters.
“What else?”
“The original digital files Ryan sent to the buyer.”
Dad entered behind her.
“And access logs from the trust accounts.”
I looked at him.
“You knew Ryan had this proxy?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you stop me from signing it?”
His answer surprised me.
“Because you were an adult.”
I stared at him.
“I thought it was a mistake.”
He sat across from me.
“But I had already spent too much of your life trying to protect you from every mistake.”
His voice softened.
“I didn’t want protection to become control.”
The irony hurt.
Ryan had spent six years convincing me Dad wanted to control me.
Dad had actually stepped back because I asked him to.
My phone buzzed again.
This time it was an email from an address I didn’t recognize.
There was no message.
Only an audio file.
I pressed play.
Ryan’s voice came through the speaker.
“If Emily finds out before Friday, the whole deal dies.”
May you like
Then Diane answered.
“So make sure she doesn’t.”
