He sat back and regarded her with flinty eyes as he sipped his wine.
“You accused me of neglecting my grandmother—not stepping in to manage things before today. She disowned my mother before I was born. I met Mae for the first time at my mother’s funeral when I was seven. I didn’t see her again until five years had passed. My father warned me about allowing her to influence me, which seemed paranoid, but he knew her better than I did. I saw her again at my father’s funeral and we remained in touch—through you, I now realize, but I never made assumptions about whether I would inherit her fortune. As for assisting in managing her wealth... How would I know she needed help? You’ve done your job so well, I had no cause for concern.”
Was that a compliment or a rebuke?
He set down his stemless glass.
“I, however, have no need for your management services. Chen Enterprises is mine. I’ll chew and swallow it the way I would any other company that falls under my control, restructuring where necessary and allowing my existing legion of executives to do what I pay them to do.”
She kept her expression a stiff mask, not revealing the crumple inside her.
“As to the threats you’ve made, my life is completely impervious to them. I don’t need my grandmother’s money and her misdeeds are not mine. I’m not close enough to her for her loss of good standing to affect my pride. You’re the one who will feel it if you implode her legacy. I’ll walk away unscathed.”
She had known that, deep down. She had known she had no real leverage. She had nothing and was nothing. Her throat tightened and it took all her effort to keep the press of tears from reaching the front of her eyes.
“So I’m to be deported?” Her stomach fell while the flutter of nerves behind her heart became the panicked batter of bird wings against a window.
He wasn’t saying anything.
Through the lashes she dropped to disguise her agony, she saw his lips curl, but it wasn’t a smile. Self-deprecation, perhaps.
She set down her chopsticks, but she couldn’t think beyond that.
“You’re not going to eat? Come with me, then.” He rose abruptly and started into the house.
She half expected to be shown the front door, but he went up the wide staircase and strode into Mae’s bedroom. She trailed him on feet that felt encased in cement, heart dragging as a weight behind her.
She had only been in this bedroom a handful of times. It was the purview of Mae’s personal maid and her nurse, decorated in Mae’s signature classic style without too much fuss or femininity, if a little dated. Mae never spent money unless she had to.
The mirror over the makeup table swung open like a cupboard. Gabriel revealed a safe and punched in the code.
“How did you—?”
“You can open these older safes by setting them back to their factory default. It takes longer to look up the combination online than it does to actually break in.” He removed a leather-bound portfolio. “I was looking for her will and also I found this.” He handed the portfolio to her.
“What is it?” She unzipped it to see a handful of her standard reports on some Chinese businessmen. Head shots, the natures of their businesses, net worth, any red flags that might cause Mae to have concerns about partnering with them.
“I don’t know why she had this in her safe. It’s a very typical—” She flipped past the third profile and found a document that read Marriage Contract.
“Oh, my God!” She threw it all away so the pages and photographs and colored notes with Mae’s spidery handwriting fluttered like a flock of startled birds, then drifted to the silk rug to leave a jagged, broken puzzle upon it.
“Why so surprised? You said she was arranging you a marriage,” he chided.
“I didn’t know she was doing it!”
She hugged herself, staring in morbid horror at the papers. What did they say? What had Mae hoped to get in exchange for her? What was she worth this time?
“The dowry she was offering was quite generous. There’s a decent settlement if you divorce, especially if you stick it out at least five years. Excellent terms if you provide children, especially sons.”
“When? I thought—” She had thought Mae wanted her. That she was doing a good job for her.