All Chapters of The Divorce That Ruined Him: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

47 Chapters

Advisor

Serena I had not expected it to feel like this. Power, I mean. The actual administrative weight of it is not the idea of it, which I had time to adjust to, but the daily texture of it. Three weeks into this, and I had begun to understand why Victor always looked tired and drained. This sure was tiring. Fourteen entities, each with their own particular set of obligations and vulnerabilities, each requiring someone at the top who was paying attention, which was my responsibility now. I was learning fast. ************ The inner circle had taken shape more quickly than I expected. Juliana first. I had noticed her in our very first meeting, the one where I had caught the compliance officer watching my reactions instead of focusing on what was at stake. She had not been watching my reactions. She had been watching the compliance officer watch me, which was a different kind of attention and a more useful one. After the meeting, I asked the senior partner about her, gotten three sente

Cornered

DamienI had not gone looking for it. My mind was full. So full with complicated thoughts. I sat in the office at half past ten with the documents on the desk in front of me and the house so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.I had come back from Geneva still following Serena's thread — the legal notice, the Hale connection, the pieces that were pulling into a shape I didn't have a name for yet — and I opened the post-box in the lobby and there had been a letter from the trust registry.It wasn't really addressed to Rose. But rather addressed to me.A notification of registered transfer in the beneficial ownership of assets associated with Holt Meridian Properties and the secondary holding structures above it.I remember reading it standing in the lobby.Then I took the lift upstairs and sat down and read it again and then pulled up the registry online and began to trace what was in the letter against what was actually filed.It took me an hour or more because I lost track of time.

The Ghost in the File

Damien The flat was very quiet when I woke up. Rose wasn't around. I had called the lawyer and left a message. He wouldn't call back until eight, and I had nothing to do with the hours between. I poured a drink and did not touch it. I took my time to search for an old document. And when I got hold of it, I opened it along with the registry documents again and looked at my own name at the top of the transfer and closed them. I got up to stretch and found myself at the window for a while and watched the street below. I wasn't going to sleep again. Nor for now. I went to the spare room. Not to find anything specific. But just moving around. My eyes landed on a box that was on the top shelf of the wardrobe. I had not looked at it directly in years. I knew it was there. But I don't recall opening it. Though I moved it twice this year without opening it. Rose had told me the content of it. What it was when my mother died. I still had the urge to take it out and verify t

What Rose Hid

DamienI was serious about finding out what was really happening. The first time I got to the hospital, they turned me away at reception. It was kind of disheartening, but I wasn't one to give up that soon.Their main reason was that visitor access required advance arrangement with the patient or their legal guardian. They took privacy and safeguarding seriously. The receptionist was very sorry she could not be more helpful.She was not unkind. I figured she was just doing her job. Though disappointed, I still stood my grounds. I stood at the desk for quite some time. And when I felt my foot sore, I left to my car.I sat in the car park for a while. The facility was a low grey building set back from a road that didn't get much traffic.My thoughts were foggy. I gave in, and then I drove two hundred miles home.I called a lawyer from the motorway. Not anyone connected to anything Rose had access to. At least one I trusted. I told him what I had. And he asked me to bring the birth recor

False Alarm

DamienI drove back from the facility with different kinds of emotions. Sadness. Confusion. Excitement. Anger and silence.Sefa sat in the passenger seat and said nothing for the first hour, which I was very grateful for. I had no idea how I was going to react or what I was going to say if he asked anything. Besides, there was nothing to say that would have improved on the silence.We had agreed on the next thing to do before we left the building. It included all legal process, the formal application to have the guardianship reviewed, the documentation that would need to be filed. All of it was clear and manageable and would take time. I had him convinced that I understood everything perfectly and that I would be in touch.Then I got into my car and drove away.The motorway stretched endlessly ahead of me. Grey sky. Wet roads. Long empty spaces between cars. I drove for almost forty minutes before I realised the radio had been playing softly the entire time. I turned it off.Zara had

Serena Whitmore is Dead

SerenaEli was four months old and had recently found ways to entertain himself and associate with nature.I, on the other hand, was trying to figure out something.Victor had left me more than I thought I could handle. And I was still trying to figure things out to be kept in place. It left me with no choice, moving in the spaces between meetings and reports and the daily work of understanding what I had been given.Hale Group International.I recently got it registered with that name. It was initially suggested by Hoffmann. And I figured he was right, and so I kept it.************The legal team was set as they appeared first. It consisted of three people from each sector. Fortunately, none with a prior association to the Hale name that had been built without my involvement.This was new. I got them sourced through Marcus, vetted through my lawyer, interviewed by me across weeks until I had the three I trusted.The security director was a woman. Former corporate intelligence. She d

The Investigator

Damien I made sure not to tell Rose I had hired someone to spy for me. I had sourced my way through half the city before I found Howe. Everyone who mentioned his name sounded like they did not want to be connected to him for too long afterward. That was enough for me to know he was probably the right choice. I had not mentioned him to anyone, including Sefa. I met him alone and discussed what I needed him to do for me. And after my short research, I found out I had made the right choice. He was remarkably professional. Too observant, too. I gave him two assignments. First… to find Serena Whitmore for me since the last source had failed horribly at that. I had no idea Serena was that good at burning all traces of herself. Every address led nowhere. Every number was dead. Every trail disappeared just when it felt close enough to touch. The second was to find out who was behind a shell company called Ancora Capital in Geneva. I said nothing about how the two might connect. Becau

Messy thoughts.

DamienLast night, I couldn't close my eyes.Not really. I'd drift, then jerk back awake, my mind already chewing on the same two words before I even had time to think. Victor Hale. Victor Hale. A part of me kept drawing closer to it, like a pull I didn't ask for. And my heart ached every time I met the name anywhere. An article. A footnote. A passing mention.At some point, I found myself standing in the corridor, pressing my knuckles flat against the wall. I said it out loud. Victor Hale. Then again. Like I was testing the weight of it. Like I needed to confirm something my body already knew.Something about it had lodged inside me. Deep. I didn't know how to explain it. I still don't.So I went back to my desk. Sat down, opened the browser. And typed his name.*******There was a lot. He really made history.Victor Hale wasn't some obscure figure. Sixty years he'd run his operation—property, private equity, the kind of wealth that doesn't need to announce itself. I found photograph

Re-introduction

RoseI have tried countless times to find Serena. She really is one smart woman. I had no idea she would make finding her this difficult. And neither could I fight Serena Whitmore with money anymore. Not now. She was way above me.That had been my first clear thought after the call with my ‘friend’. With the Hale estate behind her, she had reach I could not match directly. Legal resources. Financial structure. The kind of institutional credibility that took decades to build — or, apparently, one dying man on a plane.What I had was simpler. And more durable.Damien.It was not his love. I had stopped getting my hopes up about that a few years ago, around the time I understood that love was not the lever. Proximity was.Damien was already running parallel to me. I could feel it in the small hesitations and awkward silences. I knew for sure he was up to something. Maybe building something he thought I could not see.I needed to get in front of it before he did. And that was why I chose

Serena Makes a Friend

SerenaI was supposed to meet a visitor today. Her name is Mara Voss. I hurriedly finished everything just to meet her. Twenty-five minutes later, I got a call stating that I had a visitor. And I guess she was in.The way she held her head up and walked nearly tripping made me admire her confidence, as that did not stop her. She noticed me noticing, and it amused her.I rushed off to offer her a warm welcome as we shared pleasantries and took our seats. The last time, she sat across the conference table at the first Hale board meeting I attended and introduced herself as a former foreign correspondent, current nuisance, which made two of the older advisors smile in accordance with how eloquently she delivered every speech.She was on the board at Victor's personal request. He added her three years ago and wrote a note in the file that stated that she was someone I could fully trust with everything.In bold fonts with red ink it stated:"Mara will tell you the truth when everyone else

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