Chapter 7 - The Hostile Takeover of the HeartBy Monday morning, the financial press was in a state of terminal hyperventilation.
WALL STREET JOURNAL: CROSS HOLDINGS SUSPENDS TRADING AFTER EXECUTIVE SHAKEUP. FINANCIAL TIMES: NATHANIEL CROSS WALKS AWAY FROM LOCKWOOD MERGER IN DRAMATIC CUSTODY BATTLE.
In the sleek glass-and-steel penthouse overlooking Central Park, Vivien Lockwood stared at her iPad screen with a glass of lukewarm mimosa in her hand. Her father was shouting into a speakerphone on the mahogany desk behind her, threatening lawsuits that would take decades to wind through federal court.
"He’s done," Richard Lockwood roared into the receiver. "Without our underwriting, his municipal bond issues in London are dead in the water by tomorrow afternoon. He'll be begging us for a bailout before the opening bell."
Vivien didn't answer. She tapped the screen, zooming in on a grainy paparazzi photo taken outside a small suburban grocery store in Westport two days earlier.
The photo showed Nathaniel in a faded denim jacket, pushing a shopping cart piled high with juice boxes, diapers, and a wildly out-of-place box of organic gluten-free cookies. Elena was walking beside him, laughing at something Miles was pointing at while holding Sophie's small hand. Nathaniel wasn't looking at his phone, his stock ticker, or the cameras. He was looking down at Elena with an expression of such complete, unshielded devotion that it made Vivien's chest ache with a bitter, hollow jealousy.
Her father had never looked at her like that. No one in their world ever looked at anyone like that; they looked at portfolios, family crests, and merger metrics.
Vivien set her glass down on the marble counter with a sharp clink, picked up her designer handbag, and walked toward the private elevator.
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"Where are you going?" her father shouted. "The litigation team is drafting the injunction!"
"Tell them to cancel it," Vivien said without turning around. "We lost, Dad. He didn't want our empire. He wanted to escape it."
