Chapter 5
The first real demand arrived on Monday.
Not from Seraphina.
From Howard Bell.
The letter was labeled as a confidential settlement proposal.
Claire read it twice before letting Maximilian see it.
Seraphina would agree to permanent confidentiality concerning private Rourke family records if the broken engagement were resolved under specific financial terms.
Twelve million dollars.
Transfer of a condominium in Manhattan.
Retention of jewelry received during the engagement.
A mutual nondisparagement agreement.
No admission of wrongdoing by either side.
Maximilian almost laughed.
“She injured my child.”
“Anouk was not physically injured.”
“She confined her.”
“Yes.”
“She threatened me.”
“Yes.”
“And now she wants twelve million.”
“Yes.”
Claire closed the letter.
“That is where the extortion analysis becomes more interesting.”
The proposal carefully avoided saying:
Pay or I expose you.
But Seraphina had said almost exactly that in the main hall.
The voice recorder had captured it.
Claire preserved both.
Maximilian asked:
“Would she really release the records?”
“Probably.”
“Then why not release them already?”
“Leverage loses value after use.”
That answer disgusted him.
The forensic accountants found something else.
Seraphina had accessed an old litigation folder inside the study.
The folder concerned a decade-old corruption investigation involving Maximilian’s father and two municipal contractors.
No charges had been filed against Maximilian.
His father had died before the matter fully resolved.
Most records were already known to attorneys.
Embarrassing.
Potentially damaging.
Not the kind of secret worth twelve million by itself.
Then Daniel analyzed one of the recorder segments.
Seraphina was speaking with the same male voice.
This time clearer.
Male voice:
“Old documents aren’t enough.”
Seraphina:
“They’re enough to scare him.”
Male:
“Not if counsel tells him the exposure is dead.”
Seraphina:
“Then he needs to believe it isn’t.”
Daniel stopped the recording.
Claire stared at the speaker.
Maximilian became very still.
“Who is the man?”
“Voice identification isn’t reliable from this alone.”
They needed context.
Seraphina used an outside reputation adviser named Felix Arden.
Forty-five.
Former political communications consultant.
He had helped wealthy clients manage scandals and divorces.
Maximilian had met him twice.
He disliked him both times.
Phone records obtained later through civil discovery would have to establish whether Felix was the voice.
For now, they had another fact.
Someone advising Seraphina believed the old records were not powerful enough.
Meaning something else may have been prepared.
Maximilian looked at Claire.
“Find out what she wanted me to believe.”
Claire nodded.
“And Max?”
“What?”
“Do not assume the answer is fake evidence just because it would help you.”
He understood.
“If the records show something real?”
“We deal with something real.”
Maximilian looked toward the lake.
For most of his life, family survival meant controlling which records outsiders saw.
May you like
That philosophy had created men like him.
It had also created exactly the kind of vulnerability Seraphina now thought she could exploit.
