Chapter 6 - A New Alliance
I stared at Celeste, surprised by her audacity. "You want to make a deal with me? After yesterday?"
"Yesterday, I was marrying a fraud because I thought he held the keys to the future of energy," Celeste said, stepping closer. "Today, I know you hold the keys. Halcyon is going under. By tomorrow, it will be in bankruptcy court. But the patents—the clean energy patents—they are still yours. They are held under your private trust, Northstar."
"They are," I admitted.
"Let Halcyon burn," Celeste said, her eyes flashing with a cold, exciting ambition. "Let Adrian take the fall for the financial discrepancies. He signed all the tax documents anyway. But let's build something new. You have the technology and the capital. I have the international distribution network and the political connections. Together, we can launch a new firm. No parasites. No middlemen."
I looked at her, searching her face for any sign of deception. "You are very quick to change sides, Celeste."
"I don't have sides, Claire. I have goals. I want to change the energy grid of this country. I thought Adrian was my ticket. I was wrong. You are."
I walked over to my father's old drafting table and looked at a blueprint of a magnetic turbine. It was his life's work. He had died before he could see it realized, always pushed out by bigger, louder men who cared more about profit margins than progress.
"My father always said that the worst thing you can do with a good idea is let it sit in the dark," I whispered.
"Then let's bring it into the light," Celeste said softly.
I turned back to her. "On one condition. Adrian Vance gets nothing. He is stripped of his board seat, his shares are liquidated to pay back the embezzled funds, and he is left with absolutely nothing."
Celeste smiled, a genuine, ruthless smile. "I wouldn't have it any other way."
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We shook hands. It was the strangest alliance I could have ever imagined, born from the ashes of a public betrayal. But as I felt the strength of her grip, I realized that for the first time in six years, I wasn't playing the role of the quiet, supportive wife.
I was the director of my own destiny.
