Todos los capítulos de Velvet Chains : Capítulo 171 - Capítulo 180

Under the Third BoardRichard read the letter alone, in Margaux's study, with the door closed and the lamp turned low. Vivienne had offered to stay, and he had shaken his head with a small, shaky smile. I think she meant it for me too, he said. Just a little. I'd like to read that part by myself.He was in there for forty minutes. When he finally came out, he was holding the thin blue page against his chest with both hands, and his eyes were swollen and red. He crossed the hall to where Margaux sat waiting on the settee, and Damian and Vivienne hovered at the door, and he sank beside his mother like a man whose legs had suddenly stopped belonging to him.She said I wanted to stay, he said hoarsely. Margaux's mother. She said she made me go. I know, Margaux said gently. She had taken his hand without being asked. Vivienne told me.I've spent forty-five years telling myself I was the one who walked away, Richard said. That I chose it. That I was a coward, and I deserved every minute of

Home, Little ShipMove! Okafor shouted. Everybody back, give him room! She was already on her knees beside Richard, one hand tilting his head back, the other flat against the center of his chest. Vivienne had never seen anyone move so fast. In a single motion, Okafor locked her elbows, leaned over him, and began to push down hard and steady, counting out loud in a clipped voice that did not shake.One, two, three, four. Somebody get me a defibrillator. Dolores, do you have one? By the pie case! Dolores cried, and she was running, her apron flapping, toward a small white box mounted on the wall beside the register. Vivienne had walked past it a dozen times that day without noticing. It had a green heart painted on the front.Dolores tore it from its bracket and slid it across the linoleum. Reyes caught it, ripped the lid open, and slapped two sticky pads against Richard's bare chest while Margaux stood frozen at the edge of the circle with both hands pressed over her mouth. Analyzing h

The ClauseNobody breathed.Étienne Voss stood beside the fireplace with his hands clenched at his sides. His face was pale, and a muscle was jumping in his jaw. Vivienne had seen that look on him once before, in his office at Voss Enterprises, the day he had come to Damian to confess that he had leaked the family's secrets to the press. It was the look of a man who had already decided to do something he hated.Étienne, Margaux said, very calmly. Sit down, please. I can't, Grandmother. His voice cracked. I'm sorry. I really am. Mr. Aldridge, may I?Mr. Aldridge looked at him over the tops of his small round spectacles for a long moment, then gave a slow, reluctant nod. I believe you had better.Étienne drew a long breath. Eleven percent of Voss Enterprises sits in the family trust Grandfather set up in nineteen eighty-seven, he said. I know, because I'm the trustee. I've been the trustee since the day Richard disappeared twenty years ago, when Grandmother asked me to hold it for him.

What Marcus HidThe ledger was bigger than Vivienne had imagined. It lay on the dusty trunk under the bare attic bulb, a thick, black, cloth-bound book with a cracked spine and corners worn soft by years of handling. Étienne opened it with both hands, very slowly, as though it might crumble. The pages inside were yellowed and densely written in a tight, careful, old-fashioned hand: dates, sums, initials, and long columns of figures. Meridian Land Venture, he read aloud. His voice shook. Nineteen eighty-three. Partners of record. W. Wren. A. Hale. R. Voss, Senior. A. Whitfield. He looked up. It's all here. The whole original arrangement, in the founders' own handwriting. The fourth name, Damian said. The Benefactor- is he on it?Étienne turned the page. At the bottom, in a different ink, a tidy line of small print had been added by a different hand. Capital advanced through Meridian Trust. Beneficial owner: E. Hargrove. And beneath it, an actual signature, bold and slanting, in blue-bl

The Senator's InvitationReyes was back at Margaux's townhouse by a quarter past seven, still wearing yesterday's jacket, with rain on his shoulders and a hard, tight look on his face. I delivered it at ten to five, he said, dropping into a chair in the study. Park signed for the satchel herself. Okafor was there. The binder, the ledger, the list, everything went straight into a locked evidence room on the sixth floor. I watched the door close. He rubbed his eyes. Nobody followed me. I'd swear to it.Then how does Pell know? Vivienne asked.Somebody told him, Reyes said—somebody who was awake at five in the morning and knew exactly what was in that room.The study was crowded. Damian stood at the window with his arms folded. Étienne sat on the sofa, grim and gray. Mrs. Cho had slept in a guest room, wrapped in Margaux's shawl, and had come downstairs in a borrowed cardigan, pale and silent. Margaux sat by the fire, very upright, with her cane across her knees. Okafor's face glowed on