My Groom Tried to Steal My Family Empire Through Marriage novel · Chapter 12 of 24

Chapter 12: I Did It All for You

Nobody spoke for what felt like a full minute.

I stared at my mother's hand, resting on the page beside the capped pen.

"Diane," the lead director said at last. "The trust requires it."

"I know what the trust requires. I helped Walter write it."

Her voice was perfectly even, and nobody in the room breathed.

"I won't sign," she said again.

"Mom, why?"

She turned to me.

Her eyes were wet, and her face was calm.

She looked at me the way she had when I was seven and broke a lamp.

"Because you're about to throw away the only thing your father left you, baby."

"I'm protecting it."

"You're going to lose it in a year." She said it gently. "You've sat on this board for four years and never once asked a question. You don't know how the company runs. You don't know who owes whom. You'd be eaten alive."

"You don't get to decide that."

"I decided it a long time ago."

I felt Brice stand up at the back of the room.

I didn't turn. I kept my eyes on my mother's face.

"What does that mean?" I asked.

"It means somebody had to." She took a breath. "Preston was supposed to be safe. A husband who needed us, who owed us, who would vote the way we told him."

Preston stood very still behind his chair.

"Diane," he said. "Not here."

"Sit down, Preston."

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