All Chapters of Too late, I am no longer your wife: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

41 Chapters

Chapter 21: Betrayal

I did not tell Adrian about the call I just received. The weight of the possibilities of the call sat with me all through the day as I went on with my activities, and when Adrian sat across me talking about the budget projections, I listened but could not help but think about the call that just entered. what if I was wrong about Adrian? That evening, I called Margaret Ellis back from my car in the hospital parking lot where no one could walk past my open office door and overhear and she answered on the first ring We arranged to meet on Saturday morning. She named a park on the quiet side of the city. I wrote down the name and told her I would be there. Saturday morning came. I arrived at the park a few minutes early and found a bench near the far end of the main path where I could see the entrance clearly. I sat down and waited, watching the dog walkers pass, a woman with a pram, and an elderly man moving slowly with his hands behind his back. I saw her before she saw me; she wa

CHAPTER 22: Perceptions

"Come in," I said. The door opened. It was Adrian. He stood in the doorway with his coat still. "You were not at the morning review," he said. "I had something to take care of," I replied "How are you?" he then asked. “I am fine Adrian,” I replied Just thought to check on you," he said before shutting the door as he left, and for the rest of the day I continued my day, like the conversation with Margaret never happened. **** The foundation's morning check-in was at nine. I arrived first and set my documents on the table and poured my coffee. I was reviewing the week's priorities by the time the others filtered in. Adrian came in last with a folder under his arm. He took his seat across from where I sat; we went through the week's agenda. Treatment numbers, funding updates, and a new referral case that needed urgent review. Adrian talked through his section efficiently while I studied him now. One of the department heads, Dr. Mensah, who managed the administrative partn

CHAPTER 23: The Layer

I stayed up late that night, made myself a cup of coffee, and sat down at my desk. I began to open the foundation's document archive.I had been planning to do a routine review of the older partnership files, specifically the ones that dated back to before I had taken over full oversight of the foundation's administration. I had meant to review the early documents for weeks because I didn't know them well.I worked through the files, funding agreements, partnership correspondence, and legal filings from the Wesley Corp. dispute, and I carefully read through the document and took notes on any areas that required updates or clarification.I was already two hours in when I saw a footnote. It was in one of the early Wesley Corp. filings from the dispute, a background document that Charles's legal team had submitted as part of their initial claim. The document listed historical business relationships that Wesley Corp had maintained, and it was a long list, mostly institutional.Halfway dow

CHAPTER 24: The interview

Natasha's POVI was scrolling through my contacts when I found Felix Adu's name. I remembered him from a fundraising event two years ago; we had a brief conversation at the event, and he had given me his card. He was ambitious and restless. Charles is no longer with me, and I did not want things to settle in ways I did not likeI sent him a message; he replied within the hour, and we decided to meet for coffee the following afternoon.Felix was already leaning forward before I had finished settling into my seat."So," he said. "Tell me what brought you here."I folded my hands on the table and took a breath as I started,"My son was treated at the foundation," I said. "He was very ill; I am grateful he survived, and I want to be clear about that first."Felix nodded. "But there were things during his treatment that I could not get answers to," I continued. "The decisions that were made about his care that nobody explained to me properly, and when I asked, I was not given a proper expl

Chapter 25: Dr Warren's Favour

Dr. Warren listened to everything I said without interrupting.I told him about Felix Adu and the documentary series and the two minutes and fourteen seconds of Natasha sitting in soft lighting raising careful questions about my professional conduct. I told him about how she had woven the broadcast timeline, the platform reach, and the licensing board complaint into it, and I said how I needed something that would get ahead of everything.He was quiet for a moment after I finished."How long do we have?" he asked."Adrian thinks the editing process takes Felix a minimum of two to three weeks," I said. "Which means we have a window, but not a comfortable one.""There is a production company," he said finally. "Independent. They do long-form documentary journalism, medical, scientific, and institutional. They have approached us before about doing something on the foundation's research, but the timing was never right." He paused. "I think the timing is right now."I sat forward slightly.

Chapter 26: The Shift

The email arrived at 7:43am the next day; I read it while standing at my desk with my coat in my arm. I scrolled through the twelve-page document, the funding figures, the infrastructure details, and the proposed timeline for the Asian expansion into India, Singapore, and the Philippines. The treatment centers were already built, and staffs are already recruited; they have the distribution networks already mapped out.I got to the end and closed my laptop, as I went to see my first patientThe boy in bed four was seven years old and had been with us for eleven days. He was already sitting up when I came in; "Can I go to my cousin's birthday?" he asked before I had finished checking his chart."When is it?" I asked."It is in three weeks," he said.I looked at his numbers. "We will see what your chart says in two weeks," I repliedI moved through my morning, as I had four patients to attend to and two chart reviews. Also, I attended to a call with a referring physician about an incomi

CHAPTER 27 : The investigation

I arrived before anyone else when the hospital was still in the early morning, in between the cleaners finishing the last of the corridors and the night shift handing over. I went to my office, took off my coat, and made two cups of coffee. One for Adrian, black coffee with no sugar, and one for me, one sugar, and a little milk. I set them on the desk across from each other and waited; at exactly seven-thirty, my door opened. Adrian stepped in; his eyes went straight to the two cups, placed opposite each other. He closed the door behind him and took his seat; he looked at me. “You found something,” he said. “Yes,” I replied. I kept my hands around my cup and told him what I had found and the way everything had come together. His father’s company name buried in the background documentation. The date his father’s company entered preliminary partnership discussions and the date it folded. I mentioned Margaret Ellis and what she had told me at the pack I also mentioned Dr. Warren

CHAPTER 28: Adrian's Acts

"I know," I said. I ended the call. Tina's Pov My lawyer called at nine; I put her on speaker and pulled up the counterproposal. We went through it clause by clause; she was reading, and I was marking. We were moving quickly through the sections that needed to change before I would put my name anywhere near it. Adrian knocked at nine-forty; I waved him in without breaking the call. He sat across from me with Crestfield files in hand while he opened them and waited. When the call ended, I looked up. “Clause seven,” I said. “She thinks they’ll move on the co-approval language if we frame it as governance protection, not restriction.” “She’s right,” he said. “They won’t fight it if you reframe it properly.” I wrote that down as we moved through the rest, and while he outlined where Crestfield would actually hold their ground, I built the counter around it. We proceeded fast, and at some point, his phone buzzed on the arm of the chair. He glanced at it and looked away; ten

Chapter 29: Charles gets close

Charles's POVMy phone kept buzzing during the budget presentation; I put it on silent and kept my eyes on the screen while the CFO walked through Q3 numbers. I made two notes and waited for the slide to change before angling my phone just enough to read it under the table. It was a text; I read the message Found. I put the phone back in my pocket.“Go back to slide fourteen,” I said to the CFO. He clicked it back; I asked my questions and listened to the answer. We stayed another forty minutes, said what needed to be said, and ended the meeting.I called the investigator on my way out; he answered immediately. “Talk,” I said.He began saying everything he has found from his investigation: the names, timelines, and the supplier story that broke three days ago. “Send everything,” I said, replying to everything he had said as I ended the call.The files arrived and I spread them across the desk in order of earliest to the most recent I read through the damage column by column; two boar

CHAPTER 30: The Folder

Charles closed the door. He didn’t sit immediately; he stood there for a second with a folder under his arm, looking around the office, and then he walked up to my desk and took his seat. He opened the folder, took out a single page, and placed it on the desk between us. I looked at it; my name was at the top. “How long?” he asked.“Twenty years.” I replied“Your father’s company," he said“Yes.” I saidThere was a brief silence between us, then he went on, “I’ve been going through the old files,” he said, "acquisitions and partnerships that dated back.”“I know what my family did," he said with a low voice.I looked at him, Charles Wesley, who was sitting across from me and saying it as if he had finally allowed himself to understand. But hearing him say he knew what his father did after all these years was beginning to make everything feel too simple.I stood up from where I sat and walked to the window, turning my back to him. I was quiet for a while. “My father…” I started, then

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