He was so blind, so willfully ignorant, that he believed every lie Valerie fed him.
Or perhaps, all of it was just an excuse for his affair and his scheme to seize my shares.
Arnold had been at odds with Elwin for years. He knew exactly how to twist the knife.
Sure enough, Elwin fixed his glare on me, his jaw clenched so tight I could see the muscles twitch.
"Maureen, have you lost your mind? You're selling your shares to him?"
"How much did he pay you to throw away your position as a Gilbert daughter? Do you really want to make an enemy of me?"
"Can you not tell the difference between one good meal and a lifetime of them?"
"Or did you use those shares as a bargaining chip to become his mistress, just so the two of you could humiliate me together?"
So that was it. In Elwin's eyes, neither my devotion nor I as a person had ever been worthy of the light of day.
I didn't look at him. Instead, I turned to Arnold with a smile playing at the corners of my lips.
"Then I'll have to trouble Mr. Delgado to show me something impressive. I'm dying to see how the daughter of the richest man in the country plans to save Starlight Corporation from bankruptcy."