The Perfect Wife Walked Away
Somewhere in the building, a door closed.
Then Marie spoke again, and when she did, the last trace of the fourteen-year-old girl was gone. What remained was the Van den Berg heiress — the one who had been trained since birth to negotiate, to acquire, to secure.
"So, here is where we are," she said. "I am your wife. Not by your choice, but by law. The marriage certificate is filed, the merger is proceeding, and the combined assets of the Ballard and Van den Berg families are being integrated as we speak. The wedding ceremony proper will take place on the fourteenth of March, as planned. You will be there. You will stand at the altar. You will say the words. And you will mean them, or at least