Operational control returned to the majority voting shares.
My shares.
Fifty-one percent.
I had owned the company all along.
I simply hadn’t been allowed to exercise that authority.
Until midnight.
I slipped my phone back into my purse.
Across the ballroom, Mother was still laughing with investors.
Vanessa was posing for photographs beneath the flower wall.
Neither woman had noticed that the foundation beneath their feet had quietly shifted.
The following morning, I arrived at Bellamy House before sunrise.
The building always felt different before events began.
No orchestra.
No perfume.
Only polished wood, fresh coffee, and the distant sound of employees preparing another day.
Most of them smiled when they saw me.
Not because I owned the company.
Because I knew every one of their children’s names.
I had attended weddings.
