Chapter 10 - Damian’s Choice
Damian Voss did not take Alexander’s decision well.
“You’re going to hand them everything?”
The brothers stood in Alexander’s private office.
Clara waited outside with Rebecca Hale but could hear their raised voices through the heavy door.
Alexander remained seated because Mason had temporarily immobilized the compromised hinge until a specialist could repair it.
Damian paced.
“You think prosecutors distinguish between Dad’s lies and what we did afterward?”
“Yes.”
“You’re naïve.”
“No.”
“You think because you admit guilt they’ll reward honesty?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Alexander looked up.
“Because continuing the lie benefits Conrad.”
Damian stopped.
“There are other ways to deal with Conrad.”
“I know.”
“You’re refusing them.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Alexander answered:
“Because every private solution in this family creates another secret someone can own.”
Damian stared at him.
“You really have changed.”
Alexander almost laughed.
“Conrad said the same thing.”
Damian looked toward the window.
“Do you know what happens to Voss Holdings if they freeze assets?”
“Some assets should be frozen.”
“Employees lose jobs.”
“Then we protect legitimate operations with independent management.”
“Our name collapses.”
“Good.”
Damian turned sharply.
Alexander corrected himself.
“The criminal meaning of it should.”
Damian ran both hands through his hair.
“You don’t get to become moral at forty-eight and make everyone else pay the bill.”
That landed.
Alexander nodded.
“You’re right.”
Damian stopped.
“I am?”
“Yes.”
Alexander continued.
“So I’ll surrender control of the family trust while the investigation proceeds.”
Damian stared.
“To whom?”
“Independent trustee.”
“You’ve lost your mind.”
“No.”
“You’re giving outsiders our company.”
“I’m separating legitimate employees from our family’s leverage.”
Damian sat heavily.
For a moment he looked less like a businessman and more like Alexander’s younger brother.
“Did Dad really order it?”
“Yes.”
“The explosion.”
“Yes.”
Damian closed his eyes.
“I spent seven years hating Calder.”
“So did I.”
“I signed things.”
“So did I.”
“I approved payments.”
Alexander waited.
Damian whispered:
“What if I don’t want to know what they became?”
Alexander’s expression softened only slightly.
“You already know enough.”
Silence.
Damian looked toward the door.
“Mason sold me your medical information because I wanted leverage for the vote.”
“Yes.”
“I was going to argue you were physically declining.”
“Yes.”
“I thought removing you might save the company.”
Alexander nodded.
“You sound like Dad.”
Damian flinched.
That was more effective than accusation.
Damian sat quietly.
“What do I do?”
Alexander answered:
“Get your own lawyer.”
Damian laughed despite himself.
“That’s brotherly.”
“It’s the safest advice I can give you.”
Later, Clara entered the office.
Damian had left through a side door.
Alexander looked exhausted.
“Did he agree to cooperate?” she asked.
“He agreed to think.”
“Is that progress?”
“In my family, terrifying amounts.”
Clara placed a small drawing on his desk.
Lily had made it at the hotel.
A stick figure of Alexander sitting in a chair with an enormous metal leg. Beside him stood Lily holding a wrench almost as tall as she was.
Alexander looked at it.
Clara smiled.
“She thinks subtlety is dishonest.”
“I like her.”
“She likes machines. People she’s still evaluating.”
He set the drawing beside Mateo’s copied maintenance photograph.
Clara asked, “What happens to Conrad?”
“That depends on evidence.”
“You could hurt him.”
Alexander looked up.
“Easily.”
“You want to?”
“Yes.”
The answer was immediate.
Clara appreciated it more than a performance of virtue.
“But I won’t.”
“Why?”
“Because Mateo’s recording would call me an idiot.”
Clara laughed unexpectedly.
Alexander smiled faintly.
A phone call interrupted them.
Rebecca Hale.
Damian had retained separate counsel.
And something else had happened.
Nathan Voss wanted to make a statement.
Not privately.
Formally.
He claimed he could prove Conrad planned the incapacity operation before the brace was ever touched.
Alexander went downstairs to the interview room where Nathan sat with his attorney.
Nathan looked worse than the night before.
“What do you have?” Alexander asked.
Nathan placed a phone on the table.
“A recording.”
“Of whom?”
“My father.”
“When?”
“Three weeks ago.”
Nathan had secretly recorded Conrad after realizing the succession plan might cross into physical sabotage.
On the audio, Conrad discussed creating a “visible medical failure” during the council meeting, followed by Mason’s anticipated certification and activation of the trust amendment.
Nathan’s voice on the recording asked:
“What if Alexander falls badly?”
Conrad answered:
“Then gravity will have made the decision for us.”
Alexander closed his eyes.
No concern.
No measured intent.
Just acceptable consequence.
Nathan looked ashamed.
“I still helped with the cameras.”
“Yes.”
“I thought we were humiliating you.”
“That does not improve it much.”
“I know.”
“Why record him?”
“Insurance.”
Alexander almost laughed.
Of course.
Even rebellion in the Voss family began as leverage.
Nathan continued.
“My father has recordings of Victor too.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“But?”
“He keeps saying one phrase.”
Alexander waited.
Nathan said:
“‘No son survives the truth about his father without becoming dangerous.’”
Alexander stared at him.
Nathan lowered his voice.
“I think Conrad expects you to retaliate.”
“Why?”
“Because if you do, he wins.”
Alexander understood.
If Conrad provoked him into violence, every claim that Alexander was unstable became easier to sell.
The brace sabotage was only one path.
The deeper plan was psychological.
Conrad wanted Alexander to behave like the man everyone feared.
Alexander looked at the drawing Lily made.
A ridiculous wrench.
A child’s certainty.
Then he looked at Nathan.
“Tell your father something.”
Nathan stiffened.
“What?”
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Alexander’s voice was quiet.
“He’s going to be disappointed.”
