When the lobster arrived, Adrian raised his glass.
“To loyalty!” he exclaimed, looking at me. “And to knowing when you can trust the person next to you.”
The waiter approached from the left. His hand was trembling. Ice water splashed onto my silver dress.
Céleste let out a theatrical sigh. Adrian frowned, as if I had humiliated him.
“Idiot!” he hissed at the waiter. “Get her out of here!”
The waiter grabbed my elbow—harder than necessary—and dragged me through the kitchen. He led me out to the loading dock.
“My name is Daniel Ruiz,” he said. “I’m not a waiter. I’m an accountant in your husband’s finance department.”
He pressed a USB drive into my palm.
“Adrian ordered us to transfer the Harbor Crown payment to three shell companies at midnight. Then he filed an emergency petition declaring you mentally incompetent. He falsified your medical records. Tomorrow, you’ll lose your voting rights.”
My soaked dress clung to my body, yet I felt a strange chill.
“Why are you telling me this?”
Daniel’s face darkened. “Because I refused to cook the books. They threatened my son. And because the shell companies are run by Celeste and Adrian’s mistress, Vanessa Cole.”
Through the glass doors, I saw Vanessa laughing beside my husband.
I curled my fingers around the drive.
“They think you’re powerless,” Daniel whispered.
I glanced into the ballroom and smiled.
“Fine,” I said. “Let them keep thinking that.” »
At midnight, they would know exactly why my father had entrusted me with powers that Adrian had never discovered…
