Shattered Mask

CHAPTER 13

THE REAL CHAIRMAN

The drive back to the Jaguar Estate was a suffocating experience. The interior of the Mercedes, once a symbol of their ascent into the upper class, now felt like a cramped cage. 

Robert gripped the steering wheel so hard the leather groaned, while Linda stared blankly out the window at the passing city lights.

"He never came," Bernard muttered from the backseat, breaking the heavy silence. 

"The Heir. He stood us up. He probably stayed in his penthouse and watched the whole thing on a security feed like a goddamn movie. He has made a fool of us."

"No," Robert countered, his voice tight. 

"He was there. The Master of Ceremonies would not have announced the start of a new era if the man wasn't in the building. 

He must have used a secret entrance. A private elevator from the underground garage. Men like that don't walk through the front door like commoners."

"If he was there, why didn't anyone see him?" Linda asked, her voice trembling. 

"We watched every face, Robert. Every single person who left that building tonight was a face we have seen in the social registers for years. No one new. No mystery king."

"Maybe he is not a mystery," Leslie said suddenly. Her voice was quiet, but it had a sharpness that made everyone turn to look at her.

"What do you mean?" Linda asked.

"Think about it," Leslie said, her eyes wide as she connected the dots in her mind. 

She was trying to make them see what she was thinking

"Who had the power to throw us out with a single word? 

Who did the security guards treat like a god? Who was Jack …a man who hates everyone …bowing to and serving like a loyal dog?"

"Harnes," Robert whispered, the name tasting like ash in his mouth.

He was finally seeming to realise what Leslie was pointing at

"Exactly," Leslie insisted, leaning forward. 

"Martin Harnes. We have always known him as the attorney, but he has been the gatekeeper of the Rothwell fortune for thirty years. 

Maybe the 'Heir' story was a cover. Maybe the old man left the empire to the only person he actually trusted. 

Did you see the way Jack opened that car door? He was not just doing a job; he was acting like he was in the presence of royalty."

Linda’s eyes lit up with a sudden, desperate realisation. 

"It makes perfect sense. Harnes is the one who denied the contract. 

Harnes is the one who fired Robert. 

He is not the lawyer; he is the King. He has been running the show from the shadows all along."

"But if Harnes is the Chairman," Bernard asked, "why would he keep Jack around?"

"To mock us," Leslie snapped. " He knows Jack was my husband. He probably hired Jack specifically to rub our faces in it. 

He is using Jack as a tool to humiliate us because he knows we are his only real competition for influence in this city."

The theory took root in the car like a poisonous weed. 

It was easier for them to believe that the sophisticated, older attorney was the secret billionaire than to even entertain the possibility that the man they had kicked and insulted for four years was the one sitting on the throne.

"I know where he lives," Linda said, her voice growing stronger. 

"Harnes has a private estate in Upper Upper Manhattan. It is gated, but I was there for a charity gala committee meeting two years ago." She finished.

"We go there," Robert decided, his foot pressing harder on the gas. 

"First thing in the morning. We don't go to the office where the cameras and the guards are. We go to his home. We catch him before he leaves for the Tower; maybe then we can speak to him away from the paparazzi and everything; if anything happens, it will not be as embarrassing as when the same happens at the tower," Robert said.

"We will not go there to fight," Linda added, her mind already spinning a new web of manipulation. 

"We will go there to plead. We will tell him we were misled. 

We will blame everything on Jack. We will tell him Jack fed us lies about the company to turn us against him. 

If we can get Harnes to see that we are loyal …that we are willing to serve him …he will have to reinstate us."

"And Jack?" Leslie asked, a cruel glimmer in her eyes.

"Once Harnes realises Jack is a liability who brings drama to his doorstep, he will discard him like a used rag," Robert sneered. 

"By tomorrow afternoon, Jack will be back in his repair shop, and we will be back in the boardroom."

They pulled into the driveway of the Smith mansion, feeling a renewed sense of purpose. They had a target. They had a plan. 

They went to sleep that night convinced that Martin Harnes was the man they had to conquer, never realising that every word they spoke was being recorded by the very driver they intended to ruin.