Chapter 18: Back on the Roof

The elevator doors opened on the rooftop of the flagship, and the wind hit my face.

It was the same roof, with the same city lit up behind the stage.

Four underwriters in gray suits sat at a round table with untouched champagne.

Trevor stood at the microphone where he had toasted my ten years.

"Gentlemen," he was saying, "we're a few signatures from closing. A family distraction, nothing more."

Then he saw me.

His smile did not fall.

It simply stopped.

"Claire," he said into the microphone, and his voice filled the roof. "How kind of you to join us."

"Hello, Trevor."

Nathaniel stood at my shoulder.

Patricia had insisted on coming, and she stood a step behind me with her handbag in both hands.

Two of Nathaniel's security men stepped out of the elevator and took up places by the stairwell door.

Trevor noticed that, too.

"This is a private meeting," he said.

"This is your company's roof," I said. "And you're no longer on the board."

"The vote is being contested."

"By whom?"

He did not have an answer.

The woman in the gray suit at the head of the table put down her glass.

She was the one who had walked out when Patricia read the paternity result.

"Mr. Langley," she said. "At nine forty-one this morning, forty million dollars left the IPO escrow account. I would like to know where it went."

"A timing transfer. It's returning on Monday."

"It went to an account at a bank in Nevis," she said. "Our compliance team found the receiving company an hour ago."

She turned her phone around and held it up.

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