Chapter 9
Marjorie did not apologize.
Not at first.
She defended.
That was almost worse.
“You have no idea what it is to watch one family decide whether yours gets to survive.”
Nico sat across from her.
His face was unreadable.
Marjorie continued.
“Richard lost everything after you removed him.”
“He hid debt.”
“He made one mistake.”
“He made eleven.”
Her eyes flashed.
“And you got to decide when those mistakes were unforgivable.”
Nico’s voice remained calm.
“Yes.”
Marjorie leaned back.
“That is exactly the problem.”
Sienna listened.
Her anger did not erase the logic underneath Marjorie’s grievance.
Nico had held enormous power.
Richard’s failures were real.
So was the humiliation that followed.
Marjorie had spent years believing her family lived at Nico’s mercy.
Then Gavin married his daughter.
For the first time, the Coles possessed leverage.
Access.
Money.
Status.
Marjorie refused to lose it.
The bathroom rug had not been intended to kill Sienna.
She wanted to frighten her into bed rest.
Make her stop going through accounts.
Make her postpone leaving.
The explanation disgusted Sienna.
But it also revealed the structure.
Control.
Always control.
Sabrina cried now.
Quietly.
Her hands clenched around a tissue.
“I told her it was stupid.”
Marjorie looked at her.
“You still helped me.”
Sabrina’s face collapsed.
“Yes.”
The same could be said of Gavin.
And Dominic.
Every person around the scheme had disagreed with some line—
then stayed.
Nico turned to Dominic.
“You knew about the rug?”
“No.”
“The policy?”
“No.”
“Gavin forging Sienna?”
“No.”
Dominic’s answers came quickly.
Nico believed some.
Not all.
Claire entered with a digital access report.
She placed it before Nico.
“The insurance policy was opened from Gavin’s laptop.”
Gavin smirked.
“Obviously.”
Claire continued.
“But the application was submitted using a broker authorization code.”
Nico looked at her.
“Whose?”
Claire hesitated.
Dominic stopped moving.
Sienna saw it first.
Her eyes widened.
Claire said:
“Dominic Shaw.”
Silence.
Dominic’s face changed.
Nico stared at his oldest adviser.
The hidden fund.
The leak.
Now the insurance policy.
Dominic had insisted he knew nothing about it.
Yet his own authorization had created it.
May you like
And the question was no longer whether he had betrayed Nico.
It was how much of the Coles’ plan had begun with him.
