CHAPTER FIVE

Marilyn

By morning, we were everywhere.

I sat at the kitchen island with my coffee and scrolled through the coverage in silence. The wedding photos were running on every major outlet. We looked convincing like two people who had chosen each other.

Raffaele sat at the far end of the table, working through his own phone with the focused calm of someone who had expected all of this.

"Dylan's people are already moving," he said. "Jilted and manipulated is the angle. It won't hold though my media team is handling the counter, but expect him to show up today."

I looked up. "The board meeting is internal."

"Dylan has two allies on that board and he is also a shareholder even though it is very little" He set his phone down.

"He'll use them to get in the room. When you walk in there today, you walk in as Marilyn Romanov. Not the scorned fiancée. The woman who made a deliberate choice and has documentation to back every word."

I hated that he was right.

As I passed him on my way out, his hand caught my wrist.

"Don't let them see you calculate," he said. "Just answer."

I pulled my wrist free and left without thanking him. In the car, I turned his words over twice.

They were good advice. I just wasn't ready to say so.

***

The boardroom door was open when I arrived.

I walked in.

Twelve board members and as expected. Dylan was at the far end of the table, seated like he'd been invited. And beside him, in the chair that had belonged to the CFO, was Charlotte.

She looked up when I entered. She had the audacity to look composed.

I set my bag down at the head of the table without breaking stride.

"This is a closed session," I said to the room.

Gerald spoke up. "Mr. DiLaurentis was invited as a stakeholder representative. Given the circumstances, the board felt his perspective was relevant."

"The circumstances," I repeated.

"Your marriage," Dylan said pleasantly. "And what it might mean for the stability of B&H's leadership."

I looked at him across the table. He had put on the expression he used at charity galas; concerned, reasonable, faintly wounded. He had rehearsed this.

Charlotte hadn't looked away from me once.

"Then let's address the circumstances," I said, and opened my laptop.

I had prepared for resistance. I had not prepared for how fast Dylan moved.

Before I could pull up the first document, he spoke.

"I want to say, before anything else, that I am deeply concerned about Marilyn's wellbeing." His voice was steady and warm and perfectly calibrated.

"What she's been through this week with the stress, the sudden decisions and all, I think the board should consider whether this is the right moment for her to be leading a major governance presentation."

Two heads nodded. Gerald Rosemond and Priya Anand, the second name on my list.

"Are you suggesting I'm unstable?" I said.

"I'm suggesting you're human," Dylan said. "There's no shame in that."

Charlotte finally spoke. Her voice was soft, carefully sad. "I just want what's best for you, Mari. We all do."

The sound of my name in her mouth made me feel a headache.

I looked at her for one long moment. Then I turned back to the room.

"I'm going to play something for the board," I said. "And then we're going to talk about who in this room has Marilyn Beckham's best interests at heart."

I hit play.

Dylan's voice filled the boardroom. “She'll hand them over without question. She trusts me completely.”

Then Charlotte's laugh. Then the rest of it.

The silence afterward was the kind that had weight.

Gerald had gone very still. Priya was staring at the table. Three other board members were looking at Dylan with expressions that had quietly rearranged themselves.

Dylan recovered faster than I expected.

"That recording has no verified chain of custody," he said.

"It could have been fabricated, edited. The board shouldn't act on.. "

"I have the original file metadata, the timestamp, and a forensic authentication report filed this morning," I said. "It's in the packet you're all receiving now."

His jaw tightened.

Charlotte pushed back from her chair. "This is a personal attack. You're using a board meeting to.."

"Sit down, Charlotte."

The voice came from the doorway.

Every head in the room turned.

Raffaele stood at the entrance to the boardroom in a charcoal suit, behind him, two men I didn't recognize. Attorneys, by the look of them.

"Mr. Romanov," Gerald started, "this is a closed... "

"As of this morning, Romanov Capital holds a fourteen-percent advisory stake in B&H Industries through a holding structure that predates everyone in this room." Raffaele walked in and set a single folder on the table.

"My attorneys have been in contact with your legal team since seven a.m. I believe you'll find the paperwork is in order."

The room had gone completely quiet.

Dylan was looking at Raffaele with an expression I had never seen on him. It wasn't anger but something closer to fear.

Raffaele pulled out the chair beside mine and sat down. He didn't look at me. He opened his own laptop, calm as anything, and said to the room;

"Now. Let's talk about the share acquisition Dylan DiLaurentis has been attempting to push through this board for the last eight months. Because I have some questions about how it was structured, and I think you will too."

Gerald's face had gone pale.

I looked at Raffaele.

He hadn't told me about the fourteen percent. He hadn't mentioned the attorneys. He hadn't said a single word about any of this over coffee this morning.

He met my eyes briefly, expression unreadable, and turned back to the board.

I kept my face still and my breathing even, but underneath the table, my hand had closed into a fist.

He had come in and saved the meeting, that much was undeniable. But he had also just become a stakeholder in my company without telling me.

And I had no idea how long he had been one.