Chapter 2 - The Man Everyone Trusted
Richard didn’t speak during the emergency landing.
He didn’t have to.
Three sheriff’s deputies were waiting near the private terminal because Mark had radioed that a passenger had deliberately interfered with another passenger’s restraint during a doors-off flight.
Richard called it a misunderstanding.
Amelia called it what it was.
“He opened my harness and pushed me.”
Richard gave her the same look he had used at board meetings for months.
Patient. Concerned. Almost affectionate.
“She panicked near the door. I grabbed her. She thinks I pushed.”
Mark stood ten feet away speaking to another deputy.
Richard lowered his voice.
“Think carefully before you destroy both of us.”
Amelia nearly laughed.
Both of us.
That had been Richard’s favorite phrase since she became pregnant.
Both of us needed to think about stability.
Both of us needed to protect the company.
Both of us needed to stop letting Amelia’s “stress” affect business decisions.
Six weeks earlier, at a Carrington Foundation dinner in Santa Barbara, Amelia had questioned a $4.8 million transfer to a consulting company she didn’t recognize.
Richard had smiled across a table crowded with relatives and trustees.
“Pregnancy brain is real, sweetheart. We already covered this.”
A few people had chuckled.
Her father had looked down at his plate.
Amelia had let it go.
That memory bothered her more now than the laughter.
Richard had not merely embarrassed her.
He had been establishing a story about her.
The unstable pregnant heiress.
The confused wife.
The woman who shouldn’t control her own voting shares.
One deputy asked whether Amelia had somewhere safe to stay.
“Yes.”
Richard answered before she could.
“Our house in Montecito.”
Amelia looked at him.
“No.”
His expression tightened.
For the first time in four years of marriage, she said the address that felt safer than home.
“My father’s guesthouse.”
Then Mark walked over.
He looked uncomfortable.
“There’s something else they need to know.”
Richard turned toward him.
Mark kept his eyes on Amelia.
“Mr. Vale specifically requested the door-off configuration.”
Richard’s jaw tightened.
Mark continued.
“He also canceled the aerial photographer thirty minutes before departure.”
Amelia stared at her husband.
May you like
The photography flight had never required a photographer.
And suddenly she understood why Richard had insisted they take the helicopter alone.
