Chapter 7
Cambria met Wesley once before deciding what to do.
Neutral office.
Two lawyers present.
No Augusto.
Wesley looked exhausted.
“You’re destroying the company.”
Cambria stared at him.
“You kicked a table at your pregnant wife.”
His face tightened.
“I lost control.”
“Yes.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I believe you’re sorry.”
Hope appeared.
She removed it immediately.
“That does not answer the financial questions.”
Wesley leaned back.
“Riverton can recover.”
“Maybe.”
“It will.”
“You used my assets on lender documents.”
“I used household financial strength.”
“Without my permission.”
“We are a household.”
“You used fake Renaldi support language.”
“It wasn’t fake.”
“My father never guaranteed you.”
“He would never let the company collapse.”
Cambria went completely still.
There.
She had been waiting for that sentence.
“Why?”
Wesley looked confused.
“Why what?”
“Why are you so certain Dad would rescue you?”
“Because I’m his daughter’s husband.”
“That is not a financial instrument.”
“It is in the real world.”
Dana wrote something down.
Wesley noticed.
“This is exactly what I mean. You people pretend contracts are everything when everybody knows relationships matter.”
Cambria looked at him.
“You were borrowing against a relationship nobody agreed to pledge.”
“I was buying time.”
“With my name.”
“With our family.”
“No.”
Her voice remained calm.
“With mine.”
Wesley became angry.
“You think you built that name?”
“No.”
“Then stop acting like you earned every dollar attached to it.”
Cambria felt the insult.
She did not take the bait.
“I did not earn all of it.”
Wesley seemed surprised.
She continued.
“That still doesn’t make it yours.”
The meeting ended shortly afterward.
But Dana had noticed the same thing Cambria did.
Wesley never once said:
I planned to take your money.
He said:
Your father would never let the company collapse.
May you like
Maybe Cambria’s wealth was not his real exit plan.
Maybe Augusto was.
