“Claire misunderstood.”
“No,” I said calmly. “I understood perfectly.”
Vanessa appeared at Daniel’s side.
“This is becoming inappropriate.”
Richard looked at her.
“And you are?”
“Vanessa Cole. Corporate communications.”
Richard’s expression became cold.
“Then communicate this clearly.”
He glanced toward security.
“Nobody leaves.”
The ballroom doors were quietly closed.
Richard guided me into a private conference lounge overlooking the city.
Daniel immediately tried to follow us.
Richard stopped him with one raised hand.
“Not you.”
That frightened Daniel more than shouting ever could have.
Inside the lounge, Richard stared again at my pendant.
“I gave that necklace to your mother in 1996.”
My stomach tightened.
He took out his phone.
A moment later, he showed me an old photograph.
A much younger Richard stood beside my mother outside a small engineering company.
The sign read:
WARD AERONAUTICS.
My mother was wearing the same necklace.
“She wasn’t my employee,” Richard said quietly.
“She was my partner.”
I stared at him.
“My mother worked as a school administrator.”
“Later.”
“Later than what?”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
“After my brother destroyed her.”
Then he told me a story my mother had never shared.
Almost thirty years earlier, Eleanor Ward had created a predictive logistics system.
The technology eventually became one of the foundations of what would grow into Halston Meridian’s global shipping empire.
Richard had invested in her company.
