Chapter 10: He Announced His Engagement
Marcus announced his engagement ten days after Elena’s memorial.
Not ten months. Not ten weeks. Ten days after lilies covered the hall and he lowered his head for seven perfect seconds.
Ten days after he asked the public for privacy and performed grief like a man accepting an award.
He chose a private charity dinner with cameras near the entrance and journalists pretending not to stare.
Sophia stood beside him in a pale gold dress, Elena’s sapphire on her finger and Elena’s pearls at her throat.
Marcus touched Sophia’s back as if the gesture had not been rehearsed before a mirror.
“I have learned,” he told the room, “that grief can teach us what love truly means.”
Elena watched the clip on a muted laptop in the rented flat.
Claire stood behind her with both arms folded, and Daniel leaned against the kitchen counter, reading the financial feed with one eye.
No one spoke until Marcus lifted Sophia’s hand and the sapphire flashed under the lights.
Claire swore softly. Daniel looked at Elena. Elena did not blink.
That was how she knew the anger had gone deep.
Sophia smiled for the cameras, but her shoulders were tight, and Elena hated that she noticed.
A host congratulated them, and a photographer asked if love had helped Marcus heal.
Marcus smiled with the correct amount of sadness. “Elena would have wanted me to find peace.”
Claire made a sound like a chair leg scraping stone.
Daniel said, “He is moving too fast.”
Elena said, “No. He is moving scared.”
On-screen, Marcus guided Sophia toward the dining room with his phone in his left hand.
He checked it twice during the clip, not for grief, but for boards, lawyers, and messages he was pretending did not exist.
Valestar had demanded clarification of Northmere’s voting position, and Hargrove’s board had asked why a creditor was citing harm to Elena Voss.
Marcus had ignored both, so now he needed a story bigger than paperwork. A new engagement made good smoke.
Claire said, “We send the board letter now.” “No.”
“Elena.”
“He wants the room looking at her ring. Let them.”
Daniel’s phone buzzed, and he passed the message to Elena.
Hargrove general counsel has requested emergency instructions from Marcus. No response.
Elena read it twice, then opened a blank email with a plain subject line.
Emergency Board Review Request.
“Valestar first?” Claire asked. “Valestar first.”
Elena typed slowly, because precision beat rage.
As the largest voting shareholder of Valestar PR, Northmere Asset Protection hereby requests a special board meeting within forty-eight hours.
Agenda: executive authority review, undisclosed related-party exposure, reputational risk, and financial governance.
Sophia’s frozen face glowed on the laptop, her lifted hand bright with Elena’s ring.
Elena added one sentence: Attendance of the current chief executive is required.
Claire smiled. “That will ruin her breakfast.”
“It will save her from lunch if she is clever.”
Daniel watched her. “You still think she can be useful.”
“I think Marcus chose her because she signs things.”
“That is not kindness.” “No,” Elena said. “It is strategy.”
She sent the email, then opened a second message to Hargrove Industries and its board.
Voss Trust demanded written confirmation of creditor protections by close of business.
Claire asked, “Copy Marcus?”
Elena looked at Marcus smiling beside Sophia, pretending to be brave enough to love again.
He had given Elena ten days between death and replacement.
Elena smiled for the first time that night. “Copy his lawyer.”
She typed the line herself: Tell your client the dead woman has voting rights.
Then she sent it, and Daniel’s phone rang one minute later. “Marcus’s lawyer,” he said.
Elena did not reach for it. Across the city, Marcus Hargrove read the message.
Later, people would say his glass slipped. It did not slip.
For the first time in years, Marcus lost his grip.