The next morning, Dominic left before breakfast.
I heard the front door close while I was helping Sophia find her school shoes.
She looked toward the hallway.
"Is Daddy going to work?"
"Yes, sweetheart."
"Will he come back for dinner?"
"I hope so."
She nodded and went back to tying her shoes.
I didn't tell her that her father had spent most of the previous evening sending messages and making phone calls.
I didn't tell her that the board was questioning his leadership.
And I certainly didn't tell her that the company he had always described as his greatest achievement was now being examined by people who had helped finance it.
Some things were not meant for a six-year-old.
After dropping Sophia at school, I returned home.
Victor had asked me to come to his office.
Not because he needed my permission to review the financial arrangements.
He wanted me to understand what had been discovered.
When I arrived, he was waiting in a conference room.
A thick folder sat on the table.
There were several smaller folders beside it.
I recognized the company name on the first one.
Dominic's company.
Victor stood when I entered.
"How are you holding up?"
"I'm managing."
He pulled out a chair.
"Sit down."
I opened the first folder.
There were investment agreements, financing records, and several pages of correspondence.
I didn't understand every financial term.
But I understood enough to see that the company's growth had depended on outside support for years.
"These are the original agreements?"
"Copies. The legal team has the originals."
I turned another page.
"Why didn't Dominic know who was behind them?"
"Some agreements were made through investment entities. The Sterling connection wasn't disclosed to him personally."
I looked up.
"So he wasn't aware that my family was helping him."
"Not in the way you understood it."
I sat back.
It was strange.
I had spent years thinking my brothers were quietly helping me preserve my marriage.
Now I was looking at documents that showed how much of Dominic's success had depended on them.
Victor placed another page in front of me.
"This is the important part."
I read the heading.
It concerned the company's financial obligations.
"What am I looking at?"
"Some of the company's funding depends on continuing commitments. Those commitments have conditions."
"And?"
"And those conditions are now being reviewed."
I looked at him.
"Can the company survive without them?"
"That depends on its actual financial position and whether alternative financing is available."
He didn't exaggerate.
He never did.
I turned another page.
There were signatures.
Dominic's signature appeared on one of the documents.
I recognized it immediately.
He had signed with the same confident handwriting he used on birthday cards.
I stared at it.
"Does he know this document exists?"
"Yes."
"Then why is he acting surprised?"
Victor leaned back.
"Because he believed the agreements were ordinary financing arrangements. He may not have understood how dependent the company had become on them."
I looked down again.
I didn't know whether that made me feel better or worse.
A few minutes later, Victor received a message.
He read it and placed his phone on the table.
"The board meeting is continuing."
"What are they discussing?"
"Dominic's explanations and the company's financial exposure."
"Has he told them about me?"
Victor looked at me.
"Not yet."
I laughed quietly.
"He's probably still deciding how."
Victor didn't smile.
"There's something else."
I waited.
"The board has asked for a full explanation of the relationship between the company's financing and its reported financial strength."
I looked at the folder.
"Can they get that?"
"They can request the records. The legal and financial teams are already working on it."
I closed the folder.
"Then let them."
Victor nodded.
For a moment, we sat quietly.
Then I asked something that had been bothering me since the gala.
"Do you think Dominic ever loved me?"
Victor didn't answer immediately.
He looked at me carefully.
"Viv, I can't tell you what was inside his heart."
I lowered my eyes.
"But I can tell you that you deserved honesty."
That was enough.
I didn't want my brother inventing an answer just to make me feel better.
When I returned home, there was a message from Dominic.
We need to discuss the Sterling investments. You should have told me who your family really was.
I read it twice.
Then I placed the phone on the counter.
He was angry that I hadn't revealed my family's full influence.
Not that he had hidden another woman.
Not that he had introduced another child as his own.
Not that his daughter had stood in a hotel lobby wondering why her father didn't want to see her.
The money was what mattered to him now.
I didn't reply.
Click here to continue reading: PART 10: The Secretary Who Had Humiliated Me at the Reception Desk Was Suddenly Asked to Explain What She Knew About Dominic’s Other Family
The Little Girl With a Handmade Gift Was About to Discover That Her Father Had Built a Second Family
Part 9 of 20
