Chapter 13 - Dominic was selected before he met me
Dominic broke.
Not theatrically.
Completely.
His mother had supposedly died in a car accident.
Afterward, a mysterious scholarship paid for college.
A mentor helped him enter finance.
Opportunities appeared whenever he struggled.
He thought he was lucky.
He had been cultivated.
Just like Vanguard.
Just like our marriage.
But that didn't erase his choices.
I told him so.
“You were manipulated into my orbit.”
He nodded.
“You weren't manipulated into lying to Amelia.”
“I know.”
“You weren't manipulated into humiliating me.”
“I know.”
“You weren't manipulated into making two children believe they had one complete father.”
His eyes filled.
“I know.”
That mattered.
He finally stopped defending himself.
Then investigators located Eleanor.
Alive.
In Maine.
We found her inside a modest coastal house.
She opened the door before we knocked.
“I wondered which child would reach me first.”
Not Dominic.
Child.
Me.
Eleanor had helped my parents build S7.
After my mother's death, Charles became obsessed with perfecting it.
Eleanor objected.
Charles staged her death to protect her from people trying to seize the system.
Then he did something worse.
He incorporated Dominic into the behavioral model without Eleanor's consent.
“Did Father arrange my marriage?”
“No.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Then who?”
Eleanor looked at Dominic.
“Chloe.”
My half-sister had arranged the fundraiser where Dominic and I met.
But Chloe claimed she was following Mother's instructions.
A dead woman's instructions.
Eleanor opened a safe.
Inside were scheduled directives written decades earlier.
My mother had designed contingencies extending years beyond her death.
Not predictions.
Decision trees.
If Charles does X, do Y.
If Vivienne leaves family control, observe.
If Alexander enters politics, isolate.
If Victor becomes enforcement arm, constrain.
Our mother had been manipulating us from beyond the grave.
Then Eleanor handed me the final directive.
If S7 reaches succession phase, Vivienne must never win.
I looked up.
“Why?”
May you like
Eleanor answered:
“Because your mother was terrified of what you'd become if you did.”
