Chapter 13 - Vincent’s Betrayal
Khloe read the messages in silence.
Vincent stood across the room.
He did not deny they were real.
“When?”
“Two years ago.”
“Why were you messaging Damian?”
Vincent lowered his eyes.
Khloe read another message.
If Khloe starts asking questions about the trust, redirect her toward charitable work.
Another.
Marcus must remain the public face.
She is safer outside the company.
Khloe’s voice trembled.
“You worked with him.”
Vincent stepped forward.
“Not the way it looks.”
“Everyone says that right before explaining exactly why something is the way it looks.”
Vincent stopped.
He confessed.
After Celeste died, he and Damian made an agreement.
Khloe would remain outside the corporate fight.
Damian would not challenge the Laurent trust.
Vincent would keep Khloe focused on philanthropy.
They believed keeping her uninformed would protect her from the conflict that killed her mother.
“You erased me from my own inheritance.”
“We kept you alive.”
Khloe stared at him.
“There was no death threat.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Then tell me.”
Vincent finally did.
Three months after Celeste’s death, someone broke into the Laurent family office.
Nothing valuable was stolen.
Only trust records.
A week later, Vincent received an anonymous envelope.
Inside was a photograph of twenty-five-year-old Khloe leaving her apartment.
Written across it were five words.
KEEP HER OUT OF THORNE GLOBAL.
Khloe felt cold.
“You never told me.”
“No.”
“Did Damian send it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you ask him?”
“He denied it.”
“And you believed him?”
“No.”
“But I believed the warning.”
Khloe sat back.
Everything she had interpreted as disinterest from her family had partly been fear.
That did not excuse the lies.
But it changed them.
“Why did Isabella have your messages?”
Vincent shook his head.
“I don’t know.”
Rebecca answered.
“Northstar had access to Damian’s archived communications.”
Isabella had apparently copied thousands of files before the relationship with Marcus collapsed.
She had insurance.
Khloe looked at Vincent.
“You’re off the board.”
Vincent nodded slowly.
“I understand.”
“You’re also stepping back from anything involving my trust.”
“Yes.”
He walked toward the door.
Khloe stopped him.
“Uncle Vincent.”
He turned.
“I love you.”
His eyes filled.
“But love doesn’t give you permission to make my decisions.”
Vincent nodded.
“I know.”
He left.
Rebecca sat beside Khloe.
“We have another problem.”
“Of course we do.”
“The court hearing was accelerated.”
“When?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
Khloe frowned.
“That was fast.”
“Damian requested it.”
Rebecca handed her the petition.
Damian was asking the court to freeze Khloe’s trust for thirty days.
His argument relied partly on her pregnancy.
Partly on the hospital attack.
And partly on a psychiatric evaluation.
Khloe looked up.
“What psychiatric evaluation?”
Rebecca placed a report on the table.
It was dated six months earlier.
Khloe recognized the physician’s name.
Dr. Samuel Pierce.
She had seen him twice after experiencing anxiety during pregnancy.
The report described Khloe as emotionally unstable.
Impulsive.
Potentially incapable of major financial judgment.
Khloe stared at the words.
“He never told me this.”
Rebecca looked uncomfortable.
“There’s more.”
The referral to Dr. Pierce had come from Marcus.
May you like
Khloe felt sick.
After everything Marcus had said about protecting her from Damian’s incapacity scheme, there was now evidence that he himself had sent her to the doctor whose report could take her power away.
