Chapter 7 - The Recording
The recording lasted eleven minutes.
It destroyed thirteen years of lies.
Tristan appeared on-screen inside his office.
Derek sat across from him.
Margaret stood near the window.
The meeting had taken place six weeks before I filed for divorce.
I had no idea at the time that Tristan was already preparing for war.
His recorded voice filled the courtroom.
“Move the Mercer shares before she starts asking questions.”
Margaret answered.
“She doesn’t look at the company anymore.”
“She will if she gets angry.”
Derek asked, “What about the old records?”
Tristan leaned back.
“Anything that conflicts with the current cap table needs to disappear.”
My hands started shaking.
Leah covered one of them with hers.
The video continued.
Margaret said, “You can’t burn everything.”
Tristan smiled.
“Then lose it.”
A few people in the gallery gasped.
Derek laughed.
“What about Nora?”
“What about her?”
“If she fights?”
Tristan’s answer came immediately.
“We make it too expensive.”
I looked at him.
He stared at the screen.
Expressionless.
Margaret said, “And the children?”
That was the moment my chest tightened.
Tristan shrugged.
“Nora won’t risk losing them.”
The courtroom went dead silent.
I heard Mason’s voice in my head.
Dad said after today we might not get to live with Mom.
The recording continued.
Margaret asked, “Does Chloe know any of this?”
“No.”
“Are you going to tell her?”
Tristan laughed.
“Why?”
Chloe sat two tables away.
Her face crumpled.
On-screen Tristan continued.
“She thinks she’s becoming Mrs. Pembroke. Let her.”
Chloe looked down.
I should have enjoyed it.
I didn’t.
Humiliation is ugly even when the person once helped humiliate you.
Then came the final exchange.
Derek said, “You sure Nora won’t figure out what the shares are worth?”
Tristan smiled.
“She hasn’t asked a real question about the company in years.”
Margaret replied, “Don’t underestimate her.”
Tristan leaned back in his chair.
“I married her, Mom. I know exactly who she is.”
The recording ended.
I stared at him.
No.
That was the one thing he had never known.
Carlton requested a recess immediately.
Judge Callahan granted fifteen minutes.
In the hallway, Chloe approached me.
Leah moved between us.
“I’m not here to fight,” Chloe said.
“Then why are you here?”
Her eyes were red.
“I didn’t know.”
I said nothing.
“I thought you signed everything over years ago.”
“Because Tristan told you?”
“Yes.”
“You believed a man cheating on his wife when he described his wife?”
She flinched.
Fair.
“There’s something else.”
Leah’s attention sharpened.
“What?”
“An apartment.”
“Whose?”
“Tristan’s. Sort of.”
I frowned.
“Sort of?”
“It’s leased through Grayhaven.”
That caught us both.
Chloe continued.
“He used it for private meetings.”
“With you?”
“Sometimes.”
She looked ashamed.
“Mostly not.”
“What did you see there?”
“Cash.”
Leah asked, “How much?”
“I don’t know. A lot.”
“Anything else?”
“Phones. Corporate seals.”
She swallowed.
“And a passport.”
I shrugged.
“He travels.”
“No.”
Her voice dropped.
“The passport had his photograph.”
“So?”
“A different last name.”
Leah and I exchanged a look.
“What name?”
Chloe whispered it.
“Thomas Mercer.”
My maiden name.
I felt the hallway tilt beneath me.
Tristan had created an identity using my family’s name.
May you like
And whatever he had been planning under that identity, I knew one thing.
It had not been for me.
