Chapter 5: Three People
Charlotte didn't sleep that night.
She sat in the hotel's private owner's suite on the top floor — a room she had never stayed in, in a building that had always been hers on paper — and she spread everything across the bed.
Documents.
Phone records.
A timeline she had been building for eleven months.
And three names written on a single sheet of paper.
The first name was Daniel Frey.
Her mother's former personal attorney.
He had been the one to contact Charlotte eight months after her mother's passing, when the estate's secondary executor had finally located her.
He had handed Charlotte the private files.
He had explained the reversion clause.
He had told her that the five-year window was closing and that she needed to act.
The second name was Priya Anand.
Charlotte's closest friend since university.
The only person Charlotte had called the night she read her mother's files and understood what had been done to her.
Priya had sat on the phone with her for three hours.
She had helped Charlotte plan the approach.
She had been the one to suggest arriving in disguise.
The third name was Marcus Vale.
Charlotte's cousin.
Her mother's nephew.
He had reached out to Charlotte six weeks ago, unexpectedly, after years of silence.
He had said he wanted to help.
He had said the family owed her.
He had asked for details about her plan so he could, in his words, make sure no one interfered.
Charlotte looked at the three names for a long time.
Her phone rang at just past midnight.
It was Priya.
"I heard what happened in the lobby," Priya said.
"Are you all right?
Your face—"
"I'm fine."
"You don't sound fine."
"Someone told Vivienne I was coming." Charlotte kept her voice even.
"The lawsuit was filed before I arrived.
Two hours before."
Silence on the other end.
"Priya."
"It wasn't me, Charlotte."
"I know it wasn't you." And she did know.
She had known since she saw the filing timestamp.
Priya had been on a flight from Edinburgh that morning.
She had landed forty minutes after Charlotte walked into the lobby.
"But I needed to hear you say it."
"Who else knew?"
"Daniel Frey and Marcus."
Another silence.
Longer this time.
"Charlotte," Priya said carefully.
"Marcus called me three weeks ago.
He said he was trying to reach you and that you weren't responding.
He asked me if I knew when you were planning to go to the hotel."
Charlotte's hand tightened around the phone.
"What did you tell him?"
"Nothing specific.
I said I didn't know the exact date." Priya paused.
"But I told him it would be soon.
I said you were almost ready."
Almost ready.
That was enough.
If Marcus had been watching the hotel, if he had someone on the inside, almost ready would have put them on alert.
And then all it would have taken was one person noticing Charlotte in the vicinity — casing the building, learning the layout — and Vivienne would have had her warning.
"I'm sorry," Priya said.
"I didn't think—"
"You didn't do anything wrong," Charlotte said.
"You didn't know."
"What are you going to do about Marcus?"
Charlotte looked at the third name on her list.
Marcus Vale.
Her mother's nephew.
The man who had shown up six weeks ago with an offer to help, after years of saying nothing, after her mother's passing, after nineteen months of watching the Ashcroft Group run the Solmere name into a vehicle for their own deals.
He hadn't reached out to help her.
He had reached out to monitor her.
"I'm going to let him think it worked," Charlotte said.
"What do you mean?"
"He warned Vivienne.
Vivienne filed the lawsuit.
They think that's enough to stop me." Charlotte set the paper with the three names face-down on the bed.
"Let them think that.
Let them get comfortable."
"And then?"
Charlotte looked out at the city through the floor-to-ceiling glass.
"Then I show them what my mother actually built."
Priya was quiet for a moment.
Then: "She would have loved this, you know.
Watching you do this."
Charlotte didn't answer right away.
"I know," she said finally.
"That's the only thing keeping me steady."
She ended the call.
Picked up the sheet of paper.
Crossed out Marcus Vale's name.
May you like
Not because he was innocent.
Because she was done thinking of him as someone she needed to fear.
