The silence was so long that Victoria felt something inside her chest go quiet and cold. It was the kind of stillness that comes right before someone decides they already know the worst and just needs someone to confirm it.
"Peter " Victoria said. Her voice was flat and calm now. "Answer me."
Peter did not step back from Victoria.. Every instinct in his body looked like it wanted to. "I knew there was a clause " he said finally. "I found it two nights ago buried in a document my fathers old attorney filed decades before I took over the company. I did not know what it meant. I did not know it involved a bloodline confirmation. I swear to you Victoria I read forty pages of language I did not understand. I flagged it for review and then everything happened so fast I never followed up."
"Yo
