Chapter 6 - Bianca Believed She Was Becoming Mrs West
Bianca agreed to speak with independent counsel after learning Garrett
had blamed the preferred-share plan on her.
She produced messages.
Hundreds.
Garrett called her beautiful.
Necessary.
His future.
He promised they would be together after the IPO.
He also told her Rosalie’s thirty-percent stake was “dead weight” that
would soon disappear.
Bianca had helped prepare dilution models.
She claimed Garrett told her company counsel had approved them.
That was false.
Bianca was not innocent.
She knew Rosalie had not agreed.
She mocked her privately.
She sat in the chairman’s chair partly because Garrett told her the
board would soon treat her as family.
But she had not designed the legal structure.
Garrett had.
Then Bianca revealed something Rosalie did not expect.
Garrett told her Rosalie had never invested a dollar in West
Enterprises.
He described the marriage as financially separate.
“He said you married him after the company became successful.”
Rosalie almost laughed.
She had married Garrett before West Enterprises had its first profitable
quarter.
Garrett had rewritten history for Bianca just as he rewrote it for
himself.
Bianca looked shaken when shown early financing records.
Rosalie’s guarantees.
Her introductions.
Her capital vehicles.
The emergency note purchase.
“He said Christopher Albright was his contact.”
“He became Garrett’s contact.”
“Because of you?”
“Yes.”
Bianca covered her face.
Rosalie felt no urge to comfort her.
But she also refused to make Bianca the sole villain.
Garrett had been Bianca’s boss.
He mixed promises of marriage with corporate assignments involving his
wife’s ownership.
That power imbalance mattered even though Bianca made her own choices.
The investigation widened.
And the more records appeared, the less the story looked like a wife
defeating a mistress.
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It looked like a governance failure built around one man’s belief that
everyone around him existed to support his version of success.
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