Chapter 5 - THE SUCCESSION PLAN
Diane learned Cassidy’s identity before Brendan did.
Edward insisted she be informed privately because the investigation would require disclosure of Cassidy’s conflict.
Diane sat in a conference room at Meridian’s Midtown headquarters while independent counsel explained the Avery Family Voting Trust.
She asked one question.
“Cassidy?”
Then again.
“Cassidy Hale?”
Counsel confirmed it.
Diane laughed.
Nobody joined her.
“That’s impossible.”
It wasn’t.
Diane had met Charles Avery dozens of times.
She had never met his daughter Rebecca socially.
Charles kept his family out of corporate photographs after a kidnapping threat involving another executive’s child in the 1990s.
Cassidy visited him privately.
Used a different surname.
Worked outside Meridian.
Diane simply never connected the lines.
When Brendan was told, he sat without speaking for almost a minute.
Then:
“She married me without telling me she owned the company?”
His attorney corrected him.
“She did not control the trust when you married.”
“She knew she might.”
“She was a contingent beneficiary.”
“She lied.”
That became Brendan’s defense.
Not legally.
Emotionally.
If Cassidy had hidden something enormous, then perhaps everything he had done afterward could be reframed as reaction.
He sent her one message through Elise.
Did you ever love me, or were you studying us?
Cassidy read it and nearly answered.
Elise stopped her.
“There is no response that improves this.”
She was right.
Meanwhile, the committee asked why Jessica’s dinner request referred to “Morrison succession.”
The answer was bigger than the bucket.
Diane had been lobbying for Brendan to become Meridian Crown’s next chief operating officer.
Current COO Richard Nolan planned to retire within a year.
Brendan was one of four internal candidates.
Diane believed he was the obvious choice.
She had built an informal campaign.
Private dinners.
Introductions.
Talking points.
Strategic favors.
Jessica handled presentation.
The townhouse dinner was supposed to celebrate Brendan’s expected elevation onto the short list.
Why invite Cassidy?
Because Diane wanted Brendan’s divorce to look settled before the succession process intensified.
An eight-month-pregnant ex-wife publicly angry over an affair could become reputational noise.
Diane wanted Cassidy to sign an agreement limiting public comments about Brendan and Jessica in exchange for what Diane called “generous support for the baby.”
$4,000 a month.
Diane believed Cassidy desperately needed it.
Cassidy had seen the draft before dinner and refused.
That refusal was what started Diane’s rage.
The bucket came fifteen minutes later.
The review had begun as an assault investigation.
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Now it was asking a different question.
How much company money had Diane and Jessica used to manufacture Brendan’s path to executive leadership?
