Chapter 1 - TEN MINUTES
“Go home.”
Julian’s shoulder struck mine hard enough to send me sideways into the champagne table.
Three glasses rattled.
One tipped over and spilled across the white linen.
Around us, perhaps twenty people noticed.
Every one of them immediately became fascinated by something else.
Julian leaned close enough that I could smell bourbon on his breath.
“She belongs beside me tonight.”
He nodded toward Camilla Price.
My husband’s mistress.
Aurelia Systems’ communications director.
And, apparently, the woman he had decided should stand beside him at the company’s twentieth-anniversary celebration while his actual wife disappeared obediently into the night.
Camilla wore red.
Of course she did.
The gown hugged every line of her body, and one hand rested possessively on Julian’s arm.
But it wasn’t the dress that held my attention.
It was her earrings.
Two diamonds.
Teardrop cut.
Platinum settings.
My mother had given them to me for my thirtieth birthday.
They had disappeared from my jewelry box three months earlier.
Camilla caught me looking.
Her fingers rose casually toward one earring.
“Audrey,” she said, “perhaps this isn’t the right evening for a domestic scene.”
I stared at her.
Then at Julian.
My shoulder burned beneath the strap of my blue silk dress.
I straightened it.
“No,” I said. “I think I’ll stay for the announcement.”
Julian’s expression tightened.
He had been waiting for tonight for three weeks.
Probably longer.
Aurelia Systems had survived eighteen brutal months—debt, canceled orders, a disastrous expansion into Europe, and two lenders threatening to pull credit facilities.
Julian believed the board would reward his “leadership” by naming him president.
He had practiced pretending not to care.
He had failed spectacularly.
“You don’t understand what tonight is,” he murmured.
“I think I understand perfectly.”
“The announcement is for executives.”
Camilla smiled.
Julian looked me up and down.
“Not decorative wives.”
The words should have hurt.
A year earlier, they would have.
Tonight, they almost made me laugh.
My husband had never been particularly interested in how I spent my days.
He knew my late mother had left me money.
He assumed it was a comfortable investment portfolio managed by people in Boston.
He knew I served on the board of an arts foundation.
He knew I occasionally traveled for meetings.
That was enough information for him because anything more might have required curiosity about someone other than himself.
He had never once asked why my mother’s investment office occupied three entire floors overlooking Boston Harbor.
He had never asked why CEOs returned my calls.
He had never asked why I understood balance sheets better than most of the executives he drank with.
Julian preferred the version of me that made him feel taller.
Across the ballroom, Chairman Malcolm Reed caught my eye.
Silver-haired, seventy-one, still capable of silencing a boardroom merely by removing his glasses.
He touched two fingers to his cuff.
Our signal.
The closing documents had been executed at 3:42 that afternoon.
Northstar Holdings now owned fifty-eight percent of Aurelia Systems.
Northstar Holdings belonged to me.
Beside Malcolm stood Aurelia’s general counsel, Dana Cho.
On his other side stood Victor Hale, the forensic accountant Northstar had hired during due diligence.
Victor held a black folder.
Julian had noticed none of them.
He was too busy imagining applause.
I lifted an untouched glass of sparkling water.
“Enjoy the next ten minutes,” I said.
Julian seized my wrist.
“What the hell does that mean?”
His fingers tightened.
I looked down at them.
Then up at him.
“It means you should listen carefully.”
Something in my expression finally unsettled him.
He released me.
The ballroom lights dimmed.
Conversation faded.
Malcolm walked onto the stage.
Julian immediately straightened his tuxedo.
Camilla smoothed his lapel.
I watched him assemble the smile he intended to wear when his name was announced.
Malcolm thanked the employees.
He spoke about eighteen months of uncertainty.
The failed expansion.
Eight hundred jobs that had come dangerously close to disappearing.
Then he paused.
“Tonight,” he said, “Aurelia begins a new chapter.”
Julian inhaled.
“An investor has supplied the capital necessary to retire our most dangerous debt, stabilize our manufacturing obligations, and protect this company’s workforce.”
Applause erupted.
Julian applauded first.
I almost admired the confidence.
“The acquisition closed this afternoon,” Malcolm continued. “Northstar Holdings now owns fifty-eight percent of Aurelia Systems.”
Julian leaned toward Camilla.
I saw him whisper:
“That’s good.”
She smiled.
Neither understood yet.
Then Malcolm looked directly at me.
“Please welcome Northstar Holdings’ founder and Aurelia Systems’ new majority owner…”
The room seemed to contract.
“…Ms. Audrey Vance.”
Silence.
Actual silence.
I placed my glass on the table.
Camilla’s hand fell from Julian’s arm.
His mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
I walked past him.
Someone gasped.
Someone else whispered my name.
I climbed the stage stairs and shook Malcolm’s hand.
He smiled.
“Welcome to Aurelia.”
“Thank you.”
When I turned toward the ballroom, two hundred faces stared back.
Including my husband’s.
Julian looked as though someone had removed the floor beneath him.
Malcolm handed me the microphone.
I could have humiliated him.
The temptation was enormous.
Instead I looked around the room.
“Aurelia doesn’t need another speech about survival,” I said. “The people in this room already did the surviving.”
That earned the first applause.
I continued.
“Northstar invested because Aurelia still has valuable technology, extraordinary employees, and customers worth fighting for.”
Julian’s breathing seemed to return.
Perhaps he had convinced himself the worst was over.
It wasn’t.
“We will also be conducting a complete governance review.”
Victor Hale stepped closer.
The black folder remained beneath his arm.
“Every major vendor relationship. Every executive authorization. Every unusual payment made during the company’s financial crisis.”
Julian stopped moving.
Camilla did too.
Interesting.
I had known Julian might react.
Camilla’s reaction was more useful.
Victor opened the folder.
Just slightly.
Enough for Julian to see the first page.
His signature.
Julian left Camilla and began walking toward the stage.
Malcolm intercepted him at the bottom stair.
“Not now.”
“This is ridiculous,” Julian said.
His voice carried farther than he intended.
Several employees turned.
“I’m chief strategy officer.”
Malcolm’s expression remained neutral.
“For tonight.”
A murmur rippled through the room.
Julian stared at him.
Then at me.
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“How long?”
I tilted my head.
“About the acquisition?”
His jaw tightened.
“About all of this.”
“That depends which part you mean.”
Camilla came closer.
“Julian.”
He ignored her.
“You bought my company behind my back?”
I almost laughed.
“Your company?”
He realized his mistake.
Malcolm definitely did.
Julian lowered his voice.
“You know what I mean.”
“No. I don’t think I do.”
He looked toward Victor.
“What’s in that folder?”
Victor closed it.
“That’s what tomorrow’s meeting is for.”
Something flashed across Camilla’s face.
Fear.
Not embarrassment.
Fear.
She stepped toward Victor.
“Those materials may contain communications information protected by departmental privilege.”
Dana Cho answered from the stage.
“There is no such privilege.”
Camilla went still.
I looked at her diamond earrings.
Then at Julian.
And suddenly the affair stopped being the most interesting thing happening in the ballroom.
My husband had humiliated me publicly because he believed power belonged to him.
Ten minutes later, he had discovered his wife controlled fifty-eight percent of the company employing him.
But when the forensic accountant opened that folder, Julian hadn’t been the first person to panic.
May you like
Camilla had.
And that told me tomorrow’s meeting was going to be far more important than tonight’s announcement.
