Chapter 8 - The Bellweather Dinner
Augustus announced a family dinner for Saturday.
Odette arrived wearing emerald silk and triumph. She believed the evening would end with Kellan humiliated, me dismissed, and the voting trust delayed.
I arrived in a soft lounge outfit because I respect hostile environments but not enough to wear shapewear.
Kellan sat beside me, quiet and watchful. Something between us had changed since the breakfast. He no longer looked through me as part of an arrangement. He noticed when Odette insulted me. He noticed when I pretended not to care.
That was dangerous.
Dinner began with salmon, white wine, and thirty minutes of Odette performing concern.
“I only worry for the family,” she said. “This arrangement has made Kellan vulnerable.”
Augustus, frail but sharp-eyed, lifted his glass.
“Has it?”
Odette placed a folder on the table.
“I have documents.”
Tate looked at me.
I yawned.
Odette opened the folder and removed the forged trust amendment.
“It appears Augustus anticipated instability and gave me advisory authority if Kellan’s marriage failed to meet family standards.”
Kellan’s expression hardened.
Then I slid a second folder across the table.
“Before anyone becomes dramatic, I arranged breakfast.”
Everyone stared at me.
I corrected myself.
“Sorry. Evidence. I arranged evidence.”
Tate coughed into his napkin.
Odette’s face tightened.
Inside my folder were the original board packets, metadata analysis, signature comparisons, and a sworn statement from the retired paralegal who scanned the real documents twelve years earlier.
Odette stopped breathing normally.
Augustus looked at her with terrible calm.
“Kellan,” he said, “your wife is not lazy.”
May you like
Kellan glanced at me.
“No,” he said softly. “She is dangerously efficient.”
