Chapter 3
Rowan did not attend the emergency board meeting.
Katherine advised him not to.
“You’re a fact witness.”
“I’m chairman.”
“Exactly.”
The Mercer Family Foundation was not Rowan’s business empire.
Rowan had built Mercer Atlantic from a two-room logistics office into a multi-billion-dollar transportation and infrastructure company without family money.
But the foundation belonged to a different chapter.
His late father created it.
Genevieve expanded it.
Rowan served as chairman after his father’s death mostly because everyone expected him to.
For years, he had treated the foundation as something Genevieve understood better than he did.
That now looked less like delegation and more like negligence.
Independent directors attended the meeting.
So did Genevieve’s lawyer.
Genevieve herself appeared by video.
She had a visible bruise along her cheek.
The image was powerful.
Katherine warned Rowan not to complain about that.
“You caused the bruise.”
“I know.”
“Good.”
Genevieve requested Rowan’s temporary recusal from all foundation decisions while his assault was investigated.
Not unreasonable by itself.
Then she made the second request.
An investigation into whether Isolde attempted to extract money from the foundation after discovering “confidential internal irregularities.”
Rowan stared at Katherine.
“What?”
The board received a four-page document.
It appeared to be an email chain between Isolde and Genevieve.
In it, “Isolde” wrote:
I don’t care how you classify the payments. If you want me quiet, I want one million placed in an account for my child before the birth.
Isolde read it and turned white.
“I never wrote this.”
Rowan looked at Katherine.
“Can we prove that?”
“We can try.”
Genevieve’s presentation claimed Isolde discovered legitimate but sensitive foundation expenses.
Then attempted to leverage them for personal benefit.
Genevieve supposedly refused.
According to her version, Isolde became hostile.
Rowan later assaulted Genevieve at the baby shower after she threatened to expose the alleged extortion.
It was an effective story.
Poor wife.
Rich husband.
Family money.
Violent confrontation.
Exactly the stereotypes Genevieve had spent years encouraging people to believe about Isolde.
Katherine asked:
“Where did the board get these emails?”
“Genevieve’s counsel.”
“Original files?”
“Not yet.”
“Then nobody treats screenshots as evidence.”
The board agreed.
No finding was made.
But Rowan voluntarily stepped aside from the meeting anyway.
Genevieve received no authority over him personally.
Still, the foundation postponed several votes pending review.
That bought time.
Perhaps that was all she wanted.
Then Isolde remembered something.
“The night she called me about Halcyon.”
Rowan looked at her.
“What?”
“She asked whether I had printed anything.”
“Why?”
“I thought she meant confidential records.”
“Exactly what did you say?”
“I told her I had copies.”
Rowan’s face tightened.
“And where?”
“I didn’t say.”
Katherine pointed toward Audrey’s note.
“Someone knew.”
They checked the house’s internal service records.
Audrey had been inside the townhouse four days earlier.
Official reason:
Delivering baby shower gifts from Genevieve.
Time inside:
Twenty-three minutes.
Isolde had been at an obstetric appointment.
Rowan was working.
The housekeeper remembered Audrey asking to use the powder room upstairs.
Isolde’s study was twenty feet away.
No camera covered private rooms.
But a hallway sensor showed the study door opening once during Audrey’s visit.
There it was.
Not proof she photographed the folder.
Enough to ask.
Audrey’s attorney advised her not to answer.
Katherine did not push illegally.
She requested preservation of Audrey’s devices instead.
For the first time, Rowan began to understand why his mother had sounded so confident.
May you like
She had not improvised a defense after the staircase.
A story about Isolde already existed.
