Chapter 13: The Board and the Milan Account

Stuart's POV

The board met at nine, and the chairman had the cut video on the wall screen before I sat down.

Four million views stood under it in white numbers.

"Stuart, I have to ask you to step back while this settles," the chairman said.

"Step back from what?"

"From the chair. From the cameras. Possibly from the company."

Two of the older directors would not look at me.

"The stock is down six percent since dawn," a third said. "Because your wife threw herself down a staircase."

"She did not."

"The footage says she did."

"The footage has been cut," I said. "Someone removed the woman standing behind her."

"Mr. Ashcroft, we have a statement from Ms. Verplanck's office," the chairman said, and he slid a page across the table.

I read it standing up.

It said Celia Verplanck, a longtime friend of the family, was heartbroken, and that she stood ready to support me through a difficult marriage.

It said she would be available to meet the board.

"She has already met two of you," I said.

The chairman's ears went red.

"She had lunch with us yesterday."

"And she promised you the cover of a magazine in a week, if I took her back."

Nobody answered.

I put the page on the table and squared it with the edge.

"I will not take her back," I said. "If that costs me this chair, I'll sign it over now."

"Stuart..."

"Get your pen."

The chairman did not reach for his.

I walked out, and nobody stopped me.

My accountant was waiting in the corridor with a folder under her arm and her coat still on.

"You asked me to look at the Lothrop family trust," she said. "I didn't expect to find anything."

"And?"

"Willa's father left her everything when he died. Rosalind Verplanck has managed it since Willa was twenty."

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