Chapter 3

After the three black SUVs stopped in front of the lake house, twelve security officers in dark suits stepped out in orderly succession.

Their leader, Anthony, entered the living room and handed the property manager a copy of the trust documents.

“This property is held by the Leeds Family Trust. Catherine Leeds is its sole trustee, which means her instructions take priority over anyone else’s.”

The property manager’s face changed as soon as he finished reading.

He turned to Nico and lowered his voice.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Nico. Under the terms of the trust, we are required to follow Mrs. Leeds’s instructions.”

The car keys stopped moving in Nico’s hand.

Dante rose from the sofa.

“Nico has always been in charge of security here. Who are you?”

Anthony gave him a brief look.

“The people authorized to carry out the property owner’s orders.”

With that, he signaled his team to begin.

The security officers damaged nothing. They packed the clothes, computers, and other personal belongings brought by the four brothers and Sabrina into separate boxes, labeled each one, and carried them neatly outside.

The workers stopped installing the wardrobes and began restoring Elena’s music studio.

When Luca saw his luggage being removed, his expression darkened.

“Mom, do you really have to take this so far?”

“This house belongs to Elena. You moved in without her permission and threw her belongings out of her room. All I’m doing is removing the things that do not belong here.”

“We’re your sons too,” Luca said. “Are you saying we don’t even have the right to use a family property?”

“I gave you that right. You mistook it for ownership.”

When Sabrina saw her cosmetics being packed into a box, she hurried toward the front door.

“Be careful! Those are expensive!”

Anthony’s men ignored her and set the box carefully beside the front steps.

Sabrina turned back to me with tears in her eyes.

“Mrs. Leeds, you don’t have to humiliate me like this. I already said I could return to my school dorm.”

“Then go.”

She clearly had not expected me to agree. For several seconds, she could only stare at me.

Luca immediately moved to her side.

“You don’t have to beg her. We’ll arrange somewhere else for you to stay.”

Dante walked toward me, and the gentleness disappeared from his voice.

“If you throw us out today, don’t ask us to return to the company tomorrow and clean up the mess.”

“I haven’t removed any of you from your positions.”

“But you are challenging our authority,” Dante said. “The Brooklyn development involves more than forty suppliers. The four of us control the core contracts, payment approvals, and construction schedule. If we all stop working, the project won’t last a single day.”

Matteo came downstairs carrying the architectural drawings.

“The first construction payment is due next week. If our signatures are not submitted on time, Leeds Group will breach its contracts and the stock price will suffer.”

They were not warning me out of concern.

They were reminding me that, in their minds, Leeds Group could no longer survive without them.

“Then continue doing your jobs,” I said. “That is what the company pays you to do.”

Nico gave a cold laugh.

“You still don’t understand. The company depends on us now, not the Leeds name.”

“I understand perfectly.”

I instructed Anthony to have Elena’s cello repaired, then looked at all four men.

“Take your belongings and leave.”

Dante held my gaze for several seconds before picking up his computer.

“Fine.”

He stopped once more before walking out of the house.

“But I hope you remember what you said today. When the company begins falling apart, don’t claim we didn’t warn you.”

The four brothers left with Sabrina.

Although they had just been removed from the lake house, none of them looked particularly worried.

As long as they still controlled the company’s most important projects, they believed I would eventually ask them to come back.

I had no reason to correct that belief yet.

That evening, I instructed Anthony to investigate every project the four brothers had handled over the past three years, focusing on related companies, personal expenses, and transfers of corporate resources that had never received board approval.

The following morning, Elena entered my study carrying her laptop.

Her face was pale, and her swollen eyes made it obvious that she had been crying.

“Mom, they canceled my place in the competition.”

I took the computer from her.

Elena had entered the National Youth Entrepreneurship Summit. Each participating school could nominate only one student for the final round, and the Leeds Foundation was one of her school’s largest sponsors.

Six months earlier, Elena had submitted a business plan for improving healthcare access in underserved communities. She had visited twelve neighborhood clinics, conducted her own research, and independently completed the financial projections and operating model.

Her proposal had already passed the school’s final review.

Now the registration system claimed that she had voluntarily withdrawn.

The student replacing her was Sabrina Hayes.

Even more disturbing, the project summary under Sabrina’s name was almost identical to Elena’s proposal.

“I didn’t withdraw,” Elena said. “I called the competition committee. They told me Dante sent an official email as executive chairman of the Leeds Foundation and ordered the school to replace its nominee.”

She opened the email.

“He also claimed my proposal used confidential data from Leeds Group and could expose corporate information if I remained in the competition. But I collected all of that data myself. None of it came from the company.”

I closed the laptop.

“Get dressed. We’re going to the office.”

An hour later, we arrived at the Manhattan headquarters of Leeds Group.

The receptionist stood immediately when she saw me.

“Mrs. Leeds.”

I took Elena to the private elevator. When we reached the executive floor, several senior managers were standing outside the conference room, speaking quietly among themselves. No one had gone inside.

“Has the meeting not started?” I asked.

The deputy chief financial officer avoided my eyes.

“Mr. Dante hasn’t arrived yet.”

Two minutes later, the doors of another elevator opened.

Dante emerged with Luca, Matteo, and Nico. Sabrina followed behind them, carrying Elena’s business proposal in her arms.

The executives waiting in the corridor immediately stopped talking.

Dante did not greet them. He simply opened the conference room doors and walked inside, and everyone else followed him.

The entire sequence looked so natural that anyone watching might have assumed he was the true owner of Leeds Group.

Elena and I entered last.

Dante had already taken the seat at the head of the table. Sabrina sat to his right, with Elena’s proposal open on the computer screen in front of her.

“You don’t need to memorize every figure in this section,” Dante told her. “If the judges ask about costs, tell them the Leeds Foundation will provide additional support during the next stage.”

Luca added, “And don’t worry about the presentation. The foundation is a major sponsor. The judges understand what is expected of them.”

Elena immediately stepped forward.

“That is my proposal.”

The conference room fell silent.

Dante closed the laptop and looked at me.

“Are you here to discuss what happened yesterday, or the Brooklyn development?”

I placed Elena’s altered competition record in front of him.

“Restore her place in the competition and notify the committee that you are withdrawing your email.”

Dante glanced at the document.

“The decision has already been made.”

“By whom?”

“The foundation’s management.”

“In other words, the four of you.”

“We have the authority to decide how our sponsored resources are allocated.” Dante leaned back in his chair. “Elena will have plenty of opportunities in the future, but this competition could change Sabrina’s life. Giving it to the person who needs it more is the more reasonable decision.”

Elena clenched her hands.

“You didn’t just take my place. You stole my proposal.”

Matteo looked up.

“Watch your language. The Leeds Foundation funds your school, and your project concerns a healthcare issue the foundation has supported for years. We simply reassigned an existing proposal.”

“I created that proposal.”

“Sabrina will develop it further,” Matteo said. “The value of the project does not change depending on who receives the recognition.”

Nico lounged in his chair, his tone casual.

“Besides, if you represented the Leeds family, everyone would assume your success came from money and connections. Sabrina has a different story. The judges are much more likely to respond to someone who overcame a difficult background.”

Sabrina lowered her eyes.

“Elena, if this matters so much to you, I can withdraw.”

She began gathering the documents from the table.

“It’s just that I already included this competition in my college applications. If I withdraw now, I may lose my only chance of being accepted.”

Luca immediately pressed his hand over hers.

“You’re not withdrawing.”

Then he turned to Elena.

“You already have the best school, a house of your own, and a trust fund. Sabrina has one opportunity. Why are you determined to take away her entire future?”

“Because it belongs to me,” Elena said.

“That is exactly the attitude we’ve been trying to correct,” Dante replied. “You divide everything into what is yours and what belongs to someone else, but you never stop to consider who needs it more.”

Elena’s eyes turned red, but she refused to cry.

“If you truly want to help her, give her your own projects and achievements. Why do you always have to take something from me?”

No one answered.

I looked at the executives seated along both sides of the conference table.

“Do all of you believe that entering a competition with someone else’s proposal qualifies as reasonable resource allocation?”

No one spoke.

After several seconds, the deputy chief financial officer finally lowered his voice.

“The foundation has always been under Mr. Dante’s authority. It would not be appropriate for us to interfere with his decision.”

Dante was clearly satisfied by the answer.

When he looked at me again, his manner had returned to its usual gentleness.

“Mom, this is not a challenge to your authority. We simply don’t believe the company and the family’s resources should continue revolving around Elena.”

“And if I insist that her place be restored?”

Luca set down his pen.

“Then the four of us will suspend every project under our control until the Leeds Foundation is granted independent decision-making authority.”

Matteo pushed a document toward me.

“The board will hold a special meeting tomorrow morning to redefine the authority of executive management and the family trust. We expect you to attend.”

I opened the document.

They wanted me to surrender direct control over the foundation, the appointment and dismissal of senior executives, and part of the family assets held under the Leeds name.

This betrayal had not begun yesterday.

They had prepared these documents long before the incident at the school. They had merely been waiting for an opportunity to force me to sign them.

“Fine.” I closed the document. “I’ll be there.”

A smile appeared on Dante’s face.

“I’m glad you’re finally willing to be reasonable.”

I took Elena’s hand and led her out of the conference room.

Only after the elevator doors closed did she look at me.

“What about the competition, Mom?”

“Let them keep the place for now.”

“But—”

“The real proposal is still in your hands. No one can take away the knowledge and ability it took to create it.”

I handed the notice of the special board meeting to Anthony, who had followed us into the elevator.

“Send this to my attorney. Then notify the forensic audit team that they are to begin examining every account controlled by those four men tonight.”

Anthony accepted the document.

“Should I notify the other board members?”

“No.”

I watched the numbers above the elevator doors descend.

“If they have already decided to take Leeds Group from me tomorrow, let them bring everyone they need.”

After all, Leeds Group was only one of the legitimate companies under my control.

I wanted to see how many people had forgotten who built it—and what name I carried before Catherine Leeds ever existed.