Chapter 10 - The Vote
By eleven thirty, my name was trending in Chicago for reasons that had nothing to do with who I actually was.
One account claimed Gabriel had secretly placed me at The Imperial Room to spy on Hale executives.
Another claimed our marriage was fake.
A third said I had thrown the Coke on myself after Preston refused to participate in a staged confrontation.
The lie was ridiculous.
That did not make it harmless.
People do not need a believable story when they already want permission to hate someone.
Mara Kane, Gabriel's general counsel and no relation despite the shared last name, arrived with two lawyers and a woman from a crisis firm.
I refused the crisis firm before she finished introducing herself.
"I don't need a brand strategy."
"Mrs. Kane—"
"Anna."
The woman blinked.
"Anna, public perception will influence—"
"A criminal investigation?"
"No."
"Then public perception can wait."
Mara hid a smile behind her folder.
Gabriel did not.
The city council's procurement committee met at noon anyway.
Gabriel watched from our living room because he had recused himself.
I watched because pretending I did not care had become exhausting.
Roland appeared by video with two attorneys.
He called the payments to David a private debt arrangement.
He called Preston's behavior an immature prank.
He called the extra cameras a restaurant security matter.
Then the committee chair asked why one of Hale Construction's vice presidents had emailed David a seating diagram marked with my name forty-eight hours before the dinner.
Roland stopped speaking.
Madison had found the email in the restaurant's scheduling account.
The room on television seemed to shrink around him.
The committee suspended Hale Construction from the bid pending investigation.
Then it did something Gabriel had not predicted.
It froze Kane Urban Development's award too.
Not because of evidence against Gabriel.
Because the committee wanted an independent audit of every bidder before moving forward.
Six hundred jobs remained in limbo.
Millions in financing costs started accumulating by the hour.
Gabriel watched the decision without moving.
I knew what his board would say.
I knew what investors would say.
I knew exactly how much easier it would have been for him to control the evidence himself and force the city into a faster answer.
"I'm sorry," I said.
His eyes moved to me.
"For what?"
"You recused because I asked you to."
"Yes."
"And now your company might lose anyway."
He reached for his coffee.
"Then we lose clean."
I stared at him.
"You hate losing."
"I hate being owned more."
His phone rang.
This time he answered.
His board chairman was shouting loudly enough for me to hear from across the island.
Gabriel let him finish.
"No," he said.
Another burst of shouting.
"Because if I reverse the recusal now, every sentence Roland Hale said about me becomes easier to sell."
He listened again.
Then his voice dropped.
"And because my wife was assaulted to create leverage against this company. I will not turn that assault into leverage for it."
He ended the call.
The kitchen was quiet again.
I had spent eighteen months afraid that being married to Gabriel would swallow my name.
That morning, for the first time, I saw him risk part of his own name to protect mine.
Then Mara's phone buzzed.
She read the message once.
Her face changed.
"We have a problem."
Gabriel stood.
"What?"
"David Reyes disappeared from police protection thirty minutes ago."
I felt cold all over.
The one man who could explain the money trail had just vanished.
---
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