While she had known exactly what she had set in motion and was watching to see if it had worked.
“She didn’t expect the marriage to survive,” I said slowly. The pieces arranging themselves as I spoke. “She gave Julian the intelligence because she expected the whole thing to collapse. The contract marriage fails, the Calloway Group scandal breaks, Nolan is disgraced, Sebastian is discredited — and Edna, who has been retired for years, who has no visible connection to any of it, walks away clean.”
“And reassembles what she can from the wreckage,” Sebastian said. His voice was very quiet. “On her terms.”
“She wanted the company back,” I said. “Not for herself — she’s sixty. But restructured, rebuilt, the way she would have built it if my father hadn’t —” He stopped. “If Nolan hadn’t made t
