Richard.Richard Sterling. The chief financial officer of the Vance holding company. The man who tried to pull Malcolm into the library tonight.
"Yes, I am aware of the stock implications," Malcolm continues, his tone laced with absolute boredom. "That is Preston’s problem to manage. If the board attempts to delay the transition, I will exercise my right to liquidate my shares entirely. Tell my father that if he contacts me again, I will consider it a breach of our agreement in the library."
A long pause. I hear the faint, tinny sound of Richard’s panicked voice coming through the phone speaker, though I can't make out the words.
"I am not negotiating, Richard. Goodbye."
The line clicks dead.
The silence that follows is deafening.
My brain struggles to process the data.The resignation is effective immediately.
Simon’s frantic, desperate voice from the pantry echoes in my head.He walked away from the security division. He told Father he would hand the flash drive to the feds and burn the entire family to the ground if he ever breathed a word about your mother.
I thought Simon was exaggerating. I thought it was just another one of Malcolm’s brilliant bluffs, like the threat to sell the proprietary software.
But Malcolm doesn't bluff about resignation.
I push the door open.
Malcolm is standing behind his desk. He is holding a glass of scotch, staring out the window at the dark city. He turns his head when the door creaks, his eyes locking onto me.
He sees the expression on my face, and he knows instantly that I heard the entire conversation.
He doesn't look panicked. He doesn't look guilty. He just sets the glass down on the mahogany desk, the crystal making a softclinkagainst the wood.
"You resigned," I say. My voice sounds thin, hollow, like it belongs to someone else.
"Yes."
"From Vance Security. The company you built."
"Yes."
I take a step into the office. My bare feet are freezing against the hardwood floor. "Why?"
"It was a necessary tactical decision," Malcolm says smoothly. He walks around the desk, stopping a few feet away from me. "Preston obtained the financial records regarding your mother. He intended to leverage them against me. He assumed I would prioritize the company over you."
"So you gave him the company."
"I gave him an ultimatum," Malcolm corrects. "I informed him that if he released the documents, I would hand the holdingcompany’s encrypted ledgers to the federal government. To ensure he understood I was serious, I removed myself from the blast radius. I resigned."
He says it so calmly. He explains the complete destruction of his professional life as if he is explaining a minor shift in a floor plan.
"You lost everything," I whisper, the reality of it finally crashing into my chest. "You spent your entire life cleaning up their messes, building that division, and you just threw it away. For me."
"I didn't lose anything that matters." He steps closer, reaching out to touch my arm.
I step back.
It is a pure, involuntary reflex. The sheer scale of what he just did is terrifying.
Malcolm’s hand drops to his side. The muscle in his jaw flexes, a sharp, violent reaction to the physical rejection.
"Audrey," he says, his voice dropping to a low, warning register.
"Don't," I shake my head, pressing my hands against my eyes. "Don't manage me right now, Malcolm. Don't act like this is just a logistical adjustment. You gave up your empire because my mother made a mistake ten years ago."
