Chapter 1 - The $780 Million Lie
She reached into her worn leather tote bag, her hands trembling so violently she nearly dropped her wallet. For a moment, the dull hum of the aircraft engines was the only sound in the world. Cassandra pulled out a piece of heavy, watermarked parchment that had been folded and refolded so many times the creases were tearing. She didn't hand it to me. She simply placed it on the tray table between us like a loaded gun.
I recognized the company letterhead immediately. It was the premium stock used exclusively by my executive suite at Prescott Technologies.
My eyes scanned the dense legal jargon, catching fragments that made my stomach plummet. Cease and desist. Immediate termination of all contact. NDA enforcement. And then, the final paragraph, threatening complete financial ruin, aggressively pursuing defamation charges, and promising a drawn-out custody battle that would leave the mother "penniless and imprisoned" if she ever attempted to publicly or privately claim Damon Prescott was the father of her unborn children.
At the bottom of the page was my signature.
And directly beneath it, as the enforcing witness, was the signature of Marcus Vance. My Chief Operating Officer. My college roommate. The man who had been my best man when I planned to marry Cassandra.
“I came to your office,” Cassandra whispered, her voice cracking as a tear slipped down her cheek. Violet, sensing her mother’s distress, buried her little face against Cassandra’s neck. “I was eight weeks pregnant. I waited in the lobby for three hours. Marcus finally came down. He told me you were in a board meeting, but that you already knew. He said you had hired private investigators to track my medical records. He told me you didn't want the children, that they were a liability to the upcoming IPO, and that if I ever came near you again, you would take them from me the moment they were born and make sure I never saw them again.”
My lungs stopped working. The air in the cabin felt incredibly thin.
“He handed me a check for two million dollars,” Cassandra continued, her green eyes flashing with a sudden, fierce anger. “I tore it up and threw it in his face. But I took the letter. Because I believed him, Damon. You had been so obsessed with the firm, so cold during those last few months. I thought the ambition had finally swallowed you whole.”
“Cassie,” I choked out, staring at the forged signature. It was a perfect forgery, the kind only someone who signed documents on my behalf every single day could execute. “I never saw this. I never knew you came to the building. Marcus told me you moved to Seattle with that architect from your firm. He told me you didn't want to be contacted.”
Her eyes widened, searching my face for the lie. She didn't find one.
Before either of us could speak, the plane dropped violently. The seatbelt sign chimed, accompanied by the captain’s urgent voice over the intercom. A massive, unpredicted blizzard was sweeping across the Rockies, forcing an immediate emergency diversion. We weren't going to Denver. We were being grounded in Bozeman, Montana.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. The plane’s Wi-Fi was still active. It was a text from Marcus.
The Calder team is getting antsy. Sign the digital acquisition docs now, Damon. Do not wait until midnight.
May you like
I stared at the name on the screen, the name of the man who had stolen my family to protect his proximity to my wealth. The $780 million deal didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered except the woman beside me and the two children who shared my eyes. I powered off the phone, slipped the forged document into my jacket pocket, and looked at Cassandra.
“I’m going to fix this,” I said, the quiet intensity in my voice making her breath catch. “I don't know how yet, but I swear on my life, I am going to fix this.”
