Chapter 3: The Night She Was Not in Edinburgh
Genevieve's mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Julian held the phone toward her.
On the screen was a photograph — date-stamped, location-tagged.
A restaurant in Mayfair.
A candlelit corner table.
Genevieve in a black dress, laughing.
A man's hand resting over hers.
"That was taken the same evening you called me from your hotel room," Julian said.
"You described the view of the castle.
You said the fog was beautiful."
"Julian, I can explain—"
"The man in the photograph," Meredith said, stepping forward, "is Daniel Holt."
Julian's jaw tightened.
"My former business partner.
The one who tried to take forty percent of the company through a forged amendment two years ago."
Genevieve's eyes moved between them.
Fast.
Calculating.
"It was dinner.
Nothing more.
Daniel is an old friend—"
"He is not your friend," Meredith said.
"He is your business arrangement.
And you have been his arrangement for considerably longer than you have been Julian's fiancée."
Genevieve turned her full attention to Julian.
Her voice dropped.
Soft.
Practiced.
"You know me.
You know I would never betray you.
Whatever Meredith thinks she found, she's wrong.
She doesn't want this engagement to happen.
She never has."
Julian looked at his sister.
Meredith reached into the pocket of her apron a second time.
She set a folded document on the stone table beside the phone.
"This is a consulting agreement," she said.
"Signed eighteen months ago.
Genevieve Vance, listed as a strategic advisor to Holt Capital.
The retainer is paid monthly into an account she opened six weeks before she met Julian."
The terrace went very quiet.
A bird crossed the sky above the courtyard.
The fountain at the far end kept running.
Genevieve did not look at the document.
"That is a private financial matter that has nothing to do with—"
"It has everything to do with it," Julian said.
His voice had changed.
Flat.
Controlled.
The way it got when he had already decided something and was simply waiting for the other person to stop talking.
"Daniel has been trying to get inside this family's holdings for three years.
And you have been helping him."
"That is not what happened."
"Then tell me what happened." He pulled out a chair from the stone table and sat down.
"I have time.
Meredith has time.
The attorney is already on the phone.
Tell us exactly what happened."
Genevieve looked at the chair across from him.
She looked at Meredith.
She looked at the document on the table.
Then she did something neither of them expected.
She smiled.
"All right," she said, and sat down.
"But before I say a single word, you should know — Daniel has a copy of something too.
Something about this estate.
Something about how Meredith actually came to inherit it." She folded her hands on the table.
"So perhaps we should all be very careful about how this conversation goes."
May you like
Meredith's expression did not change.
But her hand, resting on the back of the empty chair, went still.
