CHAPTER 4 — THE WOMAN HE THOUGHT HE COULD REPLACE
CHAPTER 4 — THE WOMAN HE THOUGHT HE COULD REPLACE
By seven in the morning, Julian had watched the recording twelve times.
He hated the sound of his younger voice.
Confident.
Careless.
Arrogant.
A man who believed the world was something he could purchase if he simply found the right woman to marry.
The recording had been made nine years earlier.
Before Elena.
Before the wedding.
Before the resorts.
Before anyone knew what the marriage would become.
Julian sat alone in the dark penthouse.
Victoria had left hours ago.
She had taken her clothes.
Her jewelry.
Even the emerald pendant.
But she had left one thing behind.
Her fear.
It was still hanging in the room.
Julian looked at the screen.
The recording played again.
His younger voice laughed.
"She won't know."
Marcus's voice followed.
"She doesn't need to."
Then Julian asked:
"And if she finds out?"
Marcus answered:
"By then, you'll already own enough to make her irrelevant."
Julian closed the laptop.
"No."
He whispered the word.
"No."
Because there was one thing neither of them had anticipated.
Elena had never been irrelevant.
She had been the center of everything.
At eight fifteen, Elena entered the boardroom.
This time, she didn't enter alone.
Her father walked beside her.
Behind them came four attorneys.
The board members were already seated.
So was Julian's former chief financial officer.
And, unexpectedly, Victoria.
Elena stopped.
"What is she doing here?"
Victoria stood.
"I asked to speak with you."
Elena's expression hardened.
"Why?"
"Because I know where the money went."
The room went silent.
Elena looked at her father.
He gave a small nod.
"Let her speak."
Victoria placed a folder on the table.
"I was stupid."
Elena didn't answer.
"I believed Julian loved me."
A bitter smile crossed her face.
"He didn't."
Elena sat.
"Neither did you."
Victoria lowered her eyes.
"You're right."
She opened the folder.
"I was paid."
Elena frowned.
"By whom?"
Victoria pushed a bank statement toward her.
"Marcus Vale."
Elena stared at the name.
"How much?"
"Two hundred thousand dollars."
"To sleep with my husband?"
Victoria shook her head.
"To make you look unstable."
Elena's expression changed.
"What?"
"Julian wanted you to become jealous."
"Why?"
"So you'd make mistakes."
Victoria's voice trembled.
"He wanted you to sign documents without reading them."
Elena's hands tightened.
"Which documents?"
"The operational transfer agreements."
Her father leaned forward.
"How much authority would those agreements have given him?"
Victoria looked at him.
"Almost complete control."
Silence.
Elena looked down at the papers.
"So that was the plan."
Victoria nodded.
"Yes."
"You were supposed to provoke me."
"Yes."
"You were supposed to make me look irrational."
"Yes."
"And then Julian would convince the board I was incapable of managing the company."
Victoria nodded again.
Elena stared at her.
"Why are you telling me now?"
Victoria looked toward the door.
"Because Marcus stopped paying me."
That answer was so simple it was almost pathetic.
Elena closed her eyes.
"You betrayed me because you were paid."
"Yes."
"And now you're betraying him because he stopped paying you."
Victoria looked ashamed.
"Yes."
Elena studied her.
Then she said:
"At least you're honest about it."
At nine thirty, the board meeting began.
Julian's name appeared on the agenda.
REMOVAL OF EXECUTIVE AUTHORITY.
One board member cleared his throat.
"We need to be careful."
Elena looked at him.
"Why?"
"Julian has built the public reputation of this company."
"He built the reputation."
She paused.
"I built the company."
The room went quiet.
The chairman nodded.
"Proceed."
Elena's attorney placed documents on the table.
"These are the original trust agreements."
Another folder.
"These are the unauthorized transfers."
Another.
"These are the communications between Julian Laurent and Marcus Vale."
Finally:
"And this is the recording."
The room fell silent.
The recording played.
Julian's voice filled the room.
"She won't know."
Then Marcus:
"She doesn't need to."
The recording continued.
When it ended, nobody spoke.
The board member who had questioned the removal lowered his eyes.
"I withdraw my concern."
Elena nodded.
"Good."
The chairman signed the resolution.
Then slid it toward her.
"Mrs. Laurent."
Elena picked up the pen.
"Effective immediately, Julian Laurent is removed as CEO and director."
She signed.
One signature.
The room exhaled.
Then the chairman said:
"There's another matter."
Elena looked up.
"What?"
"Your appointment."
"My appointment?"
"As chair."
She frowned.
"I thought my father held that position."
"He did."
The chairman smiled.
"He resigned this morning."
Elena looked at her father.
He nodded.
"Why?"
"Because it's time."
"For what?"
"For you to stop being my daughter in this room."
He looked around.
"And start being the owner."
At exactly ten o'clock, the company issued its announcement.
ELENA MARIE LAURENT APPOINTED CHAIRWOMAN AND CONTROLLING EXECUTIVE OF LAURENT RESORTS.
The news exploded.
Within minutes, every major business outlet was reporting it.
Then came the questions.
Who was Elena Laurent?
Why had she been hidden from the public?
Was Julian really only an executive?
How much of the company did the family own?
And why had Julian been removed?
The answers were beginning to spread.
But Elena didn't care about the headlines.
She cared about one thing.
The employees.
She walked through the headquarters.
People watched her pass.
Some smiled.
Others whispered.
One older woman stopped her.
"Mrs. Laurent?"
Elena turned.
"Yes?"
The woman looked nervous.
"I've worked here twenty-six years."
Elena smiled.
"Then you know this company better than I do."
The woman laughed softly.
"Your grandmother used to come here."
Elena's smile faded.
"My grandmother?"
"Every Friday."
"Why?"
"She would sit with the housekeeping staff."
Elena stared.
"I never knew."
The woman nodded.
"She told us one thing."
"What?"
"That the day would come when the company needed you."
Elena felt something tighten in her chest.
"What did she mean?"
The woman smiled.
"She said you'd understand when the time came."
Then she walked away.
That afternoon, Elena returned to her old penthouse.
Security opened the door.
The place looked exactly as she had left it.
Except for one thing.
The emerald pendant was gone.
She walked into the bedroom.
Her grandmother's jewelry box was open.
Empty.
She touched it.
A memory surfaced.
Her grandmother had once told her:
"Never let a man make you believe that what belongs to your family belongs to him."
Elena had thought it was an old woman's warning.
Now it sounded like prophecy.
She turned toward the closet.
Most of her clothes were still there.
But Julian had removed his belongings.
Almost everything.
Except one box.
It sat beneath the bed.
Elena pulled it out.
Inside were old photographs.
Wedding pictures.
Travel pictures.
Their first resort opening.
Their first anniversary.
She picked up a photograph from their wedding.
Julian was smiling.
She was smiling.
They looked happy.
Elena stared at herself.
She looked so young.
So trusting.
She turned the photograph over.
There was handwriting.
Not hers.
Not Julian's.
Her father's.
I hope I'm wrong.
Elena froze.
She grabbed another photograph.
Nothing.
Another.
Nothing.
Then one from their honeymoon.
A small mark in the corner.
A date.
A location.
Geneva.
She remembered her father's warning.
Ask your father what happened in Geneva.
Her heart began beating faster.
She called him.
He answered immediately.
"Elena."
"I found the photographs."
Silence.
"You need to tell me."
"Not over the phone."
"Why?"
"Because some things shouldn't be spoken where other people can hear."
She looked around the penthouse.
"Then come here."
"I can't."
"Why?"
"I'm not alone."
Elena froze.
"Who are you with?"
Another voice answered.
A man's voice.
Cold.
Deep.
Familiar.
"With me."
Elena stopped breathing.
She knew that voice.
She had heard it only once.
Years ago.
At a charity dinner.
Marcus Vale.
Three hours later, Elena entered a private conference room.
Marcus was sitting across from her father.
He looked older than the last time she'd seen him.
But his eyes were the same.
Cold.
Calculating.
He stood.
"Elena."
She didn't sit.
"You knew."
Marcus smiled.
"About what?"
"My marriage."
"Yes."
"My husband's plan."
"Yes."
"The trust."
"Yes."
"Geneva."
His smile disappeared.
"Ah."
Her father stood.
"Elena—"
"No."
She held up her hand.
"I want him to answer."
Marcus looked at her.
"You want the truth?"
"Yes."
"Then sit."
She sat.
Marcus placed a file on the table.
"You've spent your whole life believing the Laurent family built its fortune alone."
Elena said nothing.
"That's not true."
He opened the file.
"Your great-grandfather and my grandfather built the first resort together."
"I know."
"Do you know why?"
"Money."
"Partly."
He turned another page.
"Your family had land."
Another.
"My family had capital."
Another.
"But there was something else."
Elena leaned forward.
"What?"
Marcus looked directly at her.
"Your grandmother."
Elena frowned.
"What about her?"
"She was the reason the partnership ended."
"Why?"
"Because she discovered what my grandfather was planning."
"Which was?"
Marcus's expression darkened.
"To eliminate the Laurent bloodline from the trust."
Elena's heart stopped.
"What?"
"He wanted the land."
"How?"
"By proving the Laurent heir was legally incapable of controlling it."
Elena looked at her father.
He nodded.
Marcus continued.
"Your grandmother stopped him."
"How?"
"She created a new trust."
"The one I inherited."
"Yes."
Elena swallowed.
"Then why did you come after me?"
Marcus smiled.
"Because the trust has one weakness."
Her blood ran cold.
"What weakness?"
"The controlling beneficiary."
She stared.
"Me."
"Yes."
"And what does that mean?"
Marcus leaned back.
"It means if you become legally incapacitated, the trust passes to the next successor."
Elena's face went pale.
"And who is the next successor?"
Marcus didn't answer.
Her father did.
"Your children."
Elena looked between them.
"But I don't have children."
"Exactly."
Marcus smiled.
"Which is why Julian needed to control you first."
Elena felt sick.
"Control me for what?"
"To force you into a medical and legal declaration."
"What declaration?"
Her father looked away.
Marcus said it.
"That you're mentally unfit to manage the trust."
Silence.
Elena suddenly understood everything.
The arguments.
The pressure.
The gaslighting.
The moments Julian had told her she was imagining things.
The times he had called her emotional.
Unstable.
Overworked.
Paranoid.
He hadn't been insulting her.
He had been building a case.
She whispered:
"He wanted to make me look crazy."
Marcus nodded.
"And once everyone believed it..."
He stopped.
Elena finished the sentence.
"He would control the trust."
That night, Elena stood alone in the penthouse.
She looked at herself in the mirror.
Nine years.
Nine years of being told she was too emotional.
Too sensitive.
Too dependent.
Too difficult.
She had believed some of it.
That was the cruelest part.
She had allowed Julian to rewrite her perception of herself.
She wiped her tears.
Then her phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
"Hello?"
No response.
"Who is this?"
A voice finally spoke.
"Your grandmother."
Elena froze.
"Excuse me?"
"I know what you're looking for."
"Who are you?"
The voice laughed softly.
"Someone who knew your grandmother better than your father ever did."
Elena's heart raced.
"What do you want?"
"To warn you."
"About what?"
A pause.
"Marcus is lying."
Elena's blood ran cold.
"About what?"
"The trust."
She gripped the phone.
"Tell me."
"The trust wasn't created to protect the empire."
"Then why?"
The voice lowered.
"It was created to protect you."
Elena's breath caught.
"From whom?"
The line went dead.
The next morning, Julian returned to his father's office.
He looked exhausted.
"She knows."
Marcus didn't look up.
"How much?"
"Enough."
Marcus closed his file.
"Then we move to the next phase."
Julian stared.
"What next phase?"
Marcus looked at his son.
"The one we hoped we'd never have to use."
Julian swallowed.
"What is it?"
Marcus slid a document across the desk.
Julian read the title.
His face went pale.
PETITION FOR REMOVAL OF BENEFICIARY
He looked up.
"You can't do this."
Marcus smiled.
"We can."
"She'll fight."
"Let her."
"She has the trust."
"Yes."
"Then how do we remove her?"
Marcus leaned closer.
"By proving she is incapable of controlling it."
Julian stared at the document.
Then slowly understood.
The plan had never changed.
They had only changed the target.
Elena had once been the woman Julian intended to use.
Now she was the woman they intended to destroy.
And neither man realized that Elena had already found the one person who could expose everything.
Her grandmother.
A woman who was supposed to have died twelve years ago.
May you like
And whose name had just appeared on a document dated—
three days ago.
