Chapter 12 - THE SIBLINGS WHO HATED EACH OTHER CORRECTLY
The emergency board meeting lasted six hours.
Elias entered in a borrowed suit.
Serena looked at him.
“You look like a funeral director.”
“You look like a weaponized chandelier.”
Victoria almost laughed.
Good.
They still hated each other.
That was healthier than fake unity.
Robert joined by video from Florida.
Silver hair.
Perfect tan.
Measured voice.
He denied orchestrating theft.
Denied directing Lydia.
Denied knowing Thomas accepted money.
He called himself “a concerned elder trying to preserve enterprise value.”
Then he offered rescue financing.
At predatory terms.
Serena stared.
“You create the fire and sell us water.”
Robert smiled.
“Prove I created anything.”
That was the problem.
Lydia implicated him.
But she was compromised.
Paid.
Fled.
Altered documents.
A defense attorney could destroy her credibility.
Robert knew it.
Then Victoria spoke.
“You met Lydia twelve times.”
“Foundation matters.”
“You met Mercer’s lender privately.”
“Board concern.”
“You benefited from Red Harbor transfers.”
“My son’s fund received consulting payments.”
“Thirty-eight million dollars moved.”
“Not to me.”
Every answer technically possible.
Elias leaned forward.
“What would make you stop?”
Robert looked at him.
“Sell me the logistics division.”
There it was.
The real target.
Mercer Logistics owned strategic warehouses across four states.
Robert’s son’s fund wanted them.
Serena said:
“No.”
Robert smiled.
“You don’t own enough to say that.”
Elias did.
But his control was not fully active.
Yet.
Then Richard found a clause Charles buried in the governance trust.
Emergency preservation authority could be exercised jointly by:
the primary heir,
the surviving spouse,
and one secondary beneficiary.
Elias.
Victoria.
Serena.
All three.
Serena laughed.
“Of course.”
Charles had built a mechanism requiring three people who distrusted one another to agree.
Victoria asked:
“What can it do?”
“Block asset sale for sixty days.”
“Enough?”
“Maybe.”
Elias looked at Serena.
“You in?”
She stared.
“For the company?”
“Yes.”
“For my father?”
“No.”
“For ourselves?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Elias said:
“For the employees who didn’t ask to be born into this family.”
Serena looked away.
That answer reached her.
They signed.
Robert’s offer stalled.
Then he countered by releasing a press story:
HIDDEN HEIR TAKES CONTROL OF MERCER EMPIRE.
Photos of Elias in work clothes.
Old arrest record.
Serena saw the article.
“Arrest?”
Elias looked irritated.
“Bar fight. Twenty-four.”
“Conviction?”
“Disorderly conduct.”
“Anything else?”
He hesitated.
Victoria noticed.
“What?”
Elias looked at Richard.
“Tell them.”
Richard frowned.
“I don’t know.”
Elias sighed.
“I filed bankruptcy seven years ago.”
Serena laughed bitterly.
“You are perfect.”
“Medical debt from my mother.”
Her laughter stopped.
Elias continued:
“And I had a drinking problem.”
Silence.
“How bad?” Victoria asked.
“Bad.”
“When?”
“Eight years sober.”
Serena stared.
“That will be used against you.”
“Yes.”
“You knew.”
“Yes.”
“And you still came.”
Elias looked at her.
“He asked me to.”
For the first time, Serena seemed to understand the cost of that.
Then Robert’s lawyer filed an emergency fitness challenge based on Elias’s bankruptcy and addiction history.
Serena stared at the papers.
She could join the challenge.
If Elias lost, control would pass not to her but the employee trust.
Still better for her than Robert’s fund maybe.
Victoria asked:
“What are you going to do?”
Serena looked at Elias.
Then said:
“I’m going to defend him.”
Everyone froze.
Elias frowned.
“Why?”
May you like
Serena’s answer was sharp.
“Because if anyone gets to destroy you, it’s me.”
