Chapter 4 - Camille Learns She Signed Something Too
Camille came to my hotel suite after midnight.
Still wearing her wedding dress.
No veil.
No smile.
Andrew waited outside.
“I need to see the documents.”
I almost laughed.
“Now you care?”
Her eyes flashed.
“You showed up at my wedding with a financial bomb.”
“Dad poured wine on me.”
“That was wrong.”
“Your face said otherwise.”
She looked away.
For once, Camille had no polished answer.
I gave her a copy of the collateral schedule.
She read silently.
Then stopped.
“What is this?”
Beside my alleged authorization was another consent.
Camille’s.
She recognized her signature.
“I signed that.”
My stomach tightened.
“When?”
“Dad said it was tax planning.”
“Did you read it?”
She looked embarrassed.
“No.”
Camille had spent years mocking me for reading every contract.
Now that difference between us was no longer a personality quirk.
Her consent appeared to authorize a similar pledge.
She had signed willingly.
But perhaps without understanding what Charles told her.
That did not automatically invalidate it.
It did reveal a pattern.
Charles had treated his daughters’ interests as resources he could
deploy.
With me, apparently, he had not even bothered to ask.
Camille sat on the edge of the sofa.
“Why would Dad need our shares?”
I answered honestly.
“I don’t know yet.”
She whispered:
“Does Andrew know?”
“He knows something is wrong.”
Her eyes filled.
“Tonight was supposed to be perfect.”
I looked at my ruined gown.
May you like
“Yes.”
Neither of us laughed.
