The Queen Reborn: Claiming What's Mine novel · Chapter 2 of 32

Chapter 2: Live at Four

Cora walks onto her husband's live interview and names the first line of the code he claims he wrote. A client's text proves she is the one they want.

The man with the tattoos drove her to the television studio without asking where she wanted to go.

"I'm Ronan Keane," he said, eyes on the road. "I hold twenty-two percent of your husband's company."

"Ex-husband," Cora said.

"Since nine fourteen. I read the filing."

She held her canvas tote in her lap and watched him.

He had not said why he was parked outside her gate, and she had not asked.

Last time she had walked to the bus stop with a cardboard box and missed the interview by choice.

This time she was going.

"Drop me at the front," she said. "Then you can go."

"I don't think I will," Ronan said.

The studio was a low gray building with a satellite dish on the roof.

At twenty to four, a security guard held a clipboard up against the glass door.

"Delaney, Cora," he read. "She's crossed off the guest list. Chief of staff's note says she isn't to be admitted."

Cora looked at the line through her name.

It was neat, careful ink, and it was Kendra's handwriting.

Ronan reached past her and laid a business card on the clipboard.

"She's with Keane Capital," he said.

The guard stared at the card, then at the word Keane, then at the tattoos.

A producer in a headset appeared behind him and went pale. "Mr. Keane. We didn't know you were attending."

"I'm not," Ronan said. "She is."

Cora walked in alone.

The corridor smelled of hairspray and hot lights.

On the monitor over the green room door, Brent was already seated in a leather chair, one hand resting on the armrest.

Kendra stood just off set, in a cream blazer, holding his water bottle.

The host smiled into the camera. "We're live in ten. Mr. Maddox, a big day for you."

"Big day," Brent said gravely. "A personal one, too. I'd like to ask for privacy."

The countdown ended.

Cora stopped behind a black curtain at the edge of the set.

Her heart was knocking so hard she could feel it in her teeth.

Last time, she had been in the parking lot, crying into her sleeve, watching this on her phone.

She had heard every word.

She knew what he was about to say.

"Viewers, thank you for joining us," the host said. "Brent Maddox, founder of Maddox Systems, joins us this afternoon after a major announcement."

"This morning my wife and I made the decision to part ways," Brent said. "It's amicable. I wish her well."

He paused, and let his voice go soft.

"We grew apart. I built this company in a garage with my own two hands, and it demanded everything. Not everyone can carry that kind of weight beside me."

Kendra pressed her lips together and looked down, very moved.

The host nodded. "And your wife, Cora, wasn't part of the company at all?"

"She stayed home," Brent said. "She was supportive in her way."

Cora stepped through the curtain.

The cameraman saw her first.

A red light swung, and the host's eyes slid over his own shoulder.

"Well," the host said. "It looks like we have a visitor."

Brent turned his head.

His smile stayed where it was, but his hand tightened on the armrest until the knuckles went white.

"Cora," he said. "This isn't the time."

"I think it's exactly the time," she said.

She walked across the lit floor and stood beside the empty chair.

She did not sit.

"Hello," she said to the camera, in the same plain voice she used to read code aloud to her grandmother. "My name is Cora Delaney. I'm the one who stayed home."

Someone behind the cameras made a small sound.

"I wrote the Maddox engine," she said. "The one every client in this city runs on. I wrote it in a garage in Westerville, and the first line of the first file says: for Pearl, make it simple."

Brent laughed once.

"That's a sweet story," he said, and looked at the host. "She helped with some early testing."

"Tell me what the third function in the main loop does," Cora said.

He opened his mouth.

"Just the name of it," she said. "You built it with your own two hands."

The studio went still.

The host leaned forward in her chair.

"Mr. Maddox?" the host said.

Brent's eyes slid, very fast, toward the edge of the set.

Kendra looked back at him, white-faced.

"It's, uh," Brent said. "A technical detail. We have a whole team."

"A whole team," Cora said. "Ask them who wrote it."

She turned back to the lens.

"Six years," she said, "and he called me trailer park trash this morning, on his own bed, on camera. I'd like him to say it again, right here, to Pearl Delaney's face. She's watching."

She said nothing else.

She walked off set, past the cameras, past the staring crew, and nobody stopped her.

Behind the curtain, her knees finally let go and she caught the wall.

From the other side, she heard Kendra's phone buzz twice.

Then three more times, fast.

Kendra read the screen, and her face emptied out.

"Brent," she said, in a whisper the boom mic picked up anyway. "Eastgate Freight's CTO just texted. He wants to know where Cora Delaney is. He says they only signed because of her."

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