Chapter 3 - THE BILLION-DOLLAR LIE
The applause continued for several seconds before anyone noticed that I wasn't smiling.
Camila stood beneath the enormous screen, accepting congratulations like a woman who had just conquered an empire.
“An extraordinary opportunity,” she announced. “The Thompson family is delighted to expand into the technology sector.”
I approached the stage.
“Camila.”
She turned.
“Not now, Elizabeth.”
“Actually, I think this is exactly the right time.”
Several guests stopped talking.
I pointed toward the screen.
“Would you mind explaining how the Thompson Group acquired Hartford Technologies?”
Her expression hardened.
“It's a complicated business matter. I wouldn't expect you to understand.”
“Then explain it to the people who invested in your company.”
A few executives exchanged uncomfortable looks.
Oliver hurried toward us.
“Elizabeth, please. Don't make a scene.”
I stared at him.
“Your mother just announced the acquisition of a company she doesn't own.”
Camila laughed.
“Don't be ridiculous. We have signed agreements.”
Daniel appeared beside me.
“Would you like me to explain the legal situation, Mrs. Thompson?”
Camila recognized him.
Her face changed.
“Who are you?”
“Daniel Reeves. General counsel for Hartford Technologies.”
A murmur moved through the room.
Camila's fingers tightened around the microphone.
“I'm sorry?”
Daniel opened his briefcase and removed a document.
“The acquisition announcement displayed behind you is unauthorized. Hartford Technologies has not entered into any binding agreement with the Thompson Group.”
Camila's smile vanished.
“That is impossible.”
“It's quite possible,” Daniel replied. “And we have already notified the appropriate parties that your company is representing a transaction that does not exist.”
Oliver stared at his mother.
“Mom, what is he talking about?”
Camila ignored him.
“Who authorized this man to speak?”
I stepped forward.
“I did.”
The ballroom became silent.
Camila looked at me with open contempt.
“You?”
“Yes.”
I took the microphone from the nearest assistant.
“My name is Elizabeth Hartford.”
The name landed like a bomb.
A woman near the stage whispered something to her husband.
Someone else immediately pulled out a phone.
I continued.
“My father is Jonathan Hartford, founder and majority shareholder of Hartford Technologies. I'm his only child, and I serve on the company's board.”
Oliver's face drained of color.
“Elizabeth?”
I looked at him.
“Yes, Oliver. Hartford. The company your mother just announced she had acquired.”
Camila shook her head.
“This is some kind of joke.”
“No. The joke was watching you pretend that I was too poor to deserve your son.”
A few people laughed nervously.
I wasn't finished.
“For twelve months, I've allowed this family to believe I was financially ordinary. I wanted to build a marriage without my father's wealth influencing it. I wanted to know whether Oliver loved me.”
I turned toward my husband.
“I finally have my answer.”
Oliver stepped closer.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“Because I wanted to be loved without conditions.”
“I do love you.”
“Then why did you let your mother humiliate me?”
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
Daniel placed a second document on the podium.
“This concerns the proposed acquisition.”
He explained that someone had submitted preliminary financial materials using forged authorization documents. The materials claimed that Hartford Technologies was facing liquidity problems and needed an urgent buyer.
That was why the Thompson Group had apparently believed it could acquire the company cheaply.
Camila recovered enough to interrupt.
“This is confidential corporate information. You have no right to discuss it here.”
Daniel looked at her.
“Actually, Mrs. Thompson, the information was distributed to potential investors by your company. Several of those investors are standing in this room.”
A gray-haired man near the front raised his hand.
“Camila, are you saying the acquisition isn't real?”
She smiled weakly.
“There are certain technicalities.”
“Did you use our money to finance it?”
Her silence answered him.
The atmosphere changed immediately.
People who had been applauding moments earlier began moving away from her.
Oliver grabbed his mother's arm.
“Tell me this isn't true.”
“Don't question me in public.”
“You said the deal was finalized.”
“It was supposed to be!”
I watched them argue.
For the first time, Oliver was seeing the woman I had lived with for a year.
Then Daniel leaned toward me.
“Elizabeth, there's another problem.”
“What?”
He handed me a sealed envelope.
Inside was a copy of a confidential board resolution.
My father's signature appeared at the bottom.
I recognized it immediately.
It was fake.
But the date was even more disturbing.
The resolution had been created six weeks earlier, during a period when my father had been hospitalized following a minor cardiac procedure.
Someone had attempted to authorize the sale of his company while he was recovering.
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And beneath the forged signature was a second name.
Oliver Thompson.
