Page 62 of Forever We Embrace: The Later Years
I will lead the corporate questions. Luca will question Alastair about consent, placement classifications, and the language used inside Hearthstone. Maceo will control the documentary evidence and decide when each record appears. Grayson will stay with Luca through preparation, helping him organize dates and facts without writing his responses for him.
Luther will remain visible and silent, refusing every attempt to redirect authority toward an Alpha.
When the meeting ends, Grayson takes Luca to the dining room with the Hearthstone timeline. I remain in the office with Maceo and Luther while Thane coordinates the warrant applications, but their voices carry softly through the open doorway.
Grayson asks the questions in the order Alastair’s attorney is likely to ask them. Luca answers twice before Grayson stops him.
“You’re giving me the version you think a court wants,” Grayson says.
Luca is quiet for a moment. “It’s accurate.”
“I know. It also sounds memorized.” A chair shifts against the floor. “Give him the exact process. Don’t make it cleaner for him.”
“The waiting rooms,” Luca says. “The scent cards. The classifications.”
“And what happened when someone said no.”
Another pause follows before Luca begins again. This time, his voice loses the measured rhythm he uses when he’s trying to make difficult facts easier for everyone else to hear.
Maceo glances toward the doorway, then returns to the evidence schedule. Luther pauses beside my chair long enough to read the next page over my shoulder before moving on.
By the time Thane leaves, the warrant applications are moving, the meeting request has been sent, and the settlement firm has confirmed that Alastair will attend in person the following morning.
I find Luca in the kitchen after Grayson finishes with him. The closed timeline rests near the sink while Luca pours water into two glasses. He passes one to me and leans his hip against the counter beside mine.
“Still want to do it?” I ask.
“Yes.” He brings our joined hands against his thigh. “I don’t need him to understand what he did. I need him to explain it.”
I kiss his temple. “Then that’s what we make him do.”
Luca turns his face and catches my mouth. The kiss remains soft as his hand settles against my chest.
“We aren’t depending on the meeting to save anyone,” he says when he draws back.
“No. The warrants are already moving.”
“And if he refuses to say anything?”
“He still leaves under investigation with Victor’s records, the billing trail, and the settlement demand attached to him.”
Luca nods, then rubs his thumb over the inside of my wrist. “You can end the meeting whenever you want.”
“So can you.” I lean my forehead against his. “We go in together, and either of us can call it.”
Grayson enters long enough to collect the timeline from beside the sink. He kisses Luca’s hair, squeezes my shoulder, and leaves us with the rest of the night.
Thane’s team arrests Victor shortly after six the next morning.
The first update arrives while we are eating breakfast. Victor doesn’t resist. He asks for counsel, reviews the evidence placed in front of him, and begins cooperating once his attorney confirms that Alastair’s protection no longer benefits him.
Maceo reads the report from his phone while standing beside the kitchen counter. Luther slides a plate toward him without interrupting.
“Victor confirmed that Alastair directed the merger campaign and supported the fitness challenge,” Maceo says. “He also says Dorian was ordered to obtain access to Ember House’s administrative records.”
“Did he mention Josie?” Luca asks.
“Only that Dorian was responsible for placing someone inside Ember House. He claims he wasn’t given the operational details.”
