What Vivienne Wanted
Chapter 03 - What Vivienne Wanted
The guest house was small compared to the estate Sophie had grown up in, but it felt safer than anywhere she'd slept in years.
A housekeeper had left a change of dry clothes on the bed without a word, along with a plate of food Sophie ate faster than she meant to, her body finally registering how long it had been since her last real meal.
She slept in fragments that first night, waking every hour or so convinced she'd heard the estate's gate squeaking somewhere nearby, before remembering, each time, that she was miles away now.
By morning, she'd slept through nearly six consecutive hours, the longest uninterrupted stretch she could remember in longer than she wanted to admit.
Daniel was already in his study downstairs when she came down, a stack of documents spread across his desk, reading glasses pushed up into his dark hair.
"You look better," he said, glancing up. "Sleep helps."
"I haven't slept like that in months," Sophie admitted, settling into the chair across from him.
He slid a folder toward her.
"This is the loan file for Bennett Manufacturing," he said. "I want you to look at the payment history with me. Tell me if anything looks unfamiliar."
Sophie scanned the pages, months of records, late notices, partial payments.
"I've never seen any of this," she said slowly. "Vivienne always told me the company's finances were her responsibility, that I didn't need to worry myself with the details as long as I focused on 'representing the family' at events."
"Representing the family," Daniel repeated, something dry in his tone. "Is that what she called the Castellan dinners."
"Among other things."
Daniel tapped a specific section of the file.
"These late payments started roughly fourteen months ago," he said. "Around the same time, according to what you've told me, your aunt began discussing the idea of a marriage alliance more seriously."
"That's not a coincidence," Sophie said.
"I don't think so either."
He pulled another page forward, this one showing a series of vague explanatory notes attached to the late payments—references to "seasonal cash flow adjustments" and "temporary supply chain costs" that read, to Sophie's eye, like exactly the kind of language someone uses when they don't actually have a real explanation.
"These excuses," Daniel said, "don't match anything in the manufacturing sector's actual seasonal patterns. I've financed enough companies like yours to know what real cash flow problems look like on paper. This isn't that."
"Then what is it."
"I don't know yet," Daniel admitted again. "But I intend to find out properly, not just from a loan file that only shows me what your aunt chose to report."
*Quiet moment: Sophie looking around the study, noticing, for the first time since arriving, how different this space felt from every room she'd ever occupied in Vivienne's house—no performance required here, no careful arrangement of herself to please someone watching.*
"I want to help," she said. "Whatever this actually turns out to be. I don't want to just wait somewhere safe while you figure it out around me."
Daniel studied her for a moment.
"I was going to suggest exactly that," he said. "You know that company and that family better than anyone else alive. I'd be foolish not to use that."
Sophie felt something steady in her chest for the first time since last night, something that resembled purpose rather than pure fear.
"Where do we start," she asked.
"I'm bringing in an attorney," Daniel said. "Grace Marsh. She specializes in exactly this kind of financial discrepancy. I want her reviewing the full books, not just the loan file, before we draw any conclusions."
He paused, glancing toward his phone, still lit up periodically with Vivienne's increasingly frequent calls.
"And I think it's time I actually answer one of these," he said. "Carefully. See what she says when she thinks I don't yet know anything's wrong."
Sophie felt a flicker of nerves at that, but nodded.
"Just don't let her know I'm here," she said quietly.
"I won't," Daniel said. "Not until we understand exactly what we're dealing with."
May you like
He picked up the phone as it buzzed again, Vivienne's name lighting the screen, and answered with a calm, unbothered voice that gave away nothing at all.
"Vivienne," he said. "Sorry for the delay. Tell me again what you need to discuss about the restructuring."
