Chapter 8 - THE COLE FAMILY
Charles Cole recovered enough from his stroke to attend a family meeting.
He was sixty-nine.
Old-school.
Controlled.
He looked at Elena’s pregnancy first.
Then at Adrian.
“Is the child yours?”
“Yes.”
“DNA?”
Adrian’s expression hardened.
Elena answered before him.
“If you want legal confirmation after birth, we can handle that through counsel.”
Good.
No home-test spectacle.
Charles nodded.
Then asked:
“Are you marrying her?”
Adrian said:
“That is not your decision.”
Charles looked at Elena.
“What do you want?”
Everyone expected anger.
Elena answered:
“Right now? A healthy delivery and somewhere I’m not discussed like a merger.”
Daniel almost smiled.
Charles did not.
Then he said:
“I objected because Adrian told me nothing.”
Adrian stared.
Charles continued:
“I heard rumors he was involved with an employee at his sister’s house. I told him to end it.”
There.
Another layer.
Adrian had not merely feared hypothetical disapproval.
His father had already pressured him.
Charles said:
“Employment dependency complicates consent.”
That was not a foolish concern.
Elena worked in a household tied to Adrian’s family.
Power imbalance existed.
Then Elena said:
“So your solution was to make me disappear instead of asking whether I had agency.”
Charles looked at her.
Fair.
Then he asked Adrian:
“Did you ever control her job?”
“No.”
“Pay?”
“No.”
“Schedule?”
“No.”
Daniel confirmed.
Still, the family structure mattered.
Charles finally said:
“I should have asked more questions.”
Vanessa laughed bitterly.
May you like
“Everyone keeps saying that after the damage.”
For once, she was right.
