Supreme Authority

Chapter 3

"What are you doing with your phone?"

Victoria stood in the doorway, one hand still on the handle.

Alexander slid the phone into his pocket.

"Calling a cab," he said.

"I told you. The car is waiting."

"Your car," Alexander said. "I'm not riding with you."

Behind Victoria, Chloe snorted.

Victoria held out her hand. "Give me your phone."

"What?" Alexander said.

"You cheated, so everything of yours is mine now. Including your phone. Give it to me."

"We're not legally divorced yet. This thing is still mine."

"Shut up. I've already divorced you."

Alexander knew this moment too. It had happened in his first life, word for word. He took out the phone and put it in her hand.

Victoria dropped it into her handbag without looking at it.

"Fine," she said. "Take your cab. Our car will follow right behind you. If you dare to run away, I'll sign it without you and let the lawyers drag you there."

She turned and walked away. Her heels clicked down the corridor.

Sophia let out a breath she had been holding.

"Your phone," she whispered.

"It already did its job," Alexander said.

---

Victoria was first through the doors of the government office.

She did not wait for the others. She walked straight to the counter, set the divorce papers down in front of the clerk, and uncapped her own pen.

"We'd like this done now," she said. "Please."

The Cavendish family filed in behind her and filled the plastic chairs along the wall. Beverly sat in the middle, both hands on the silver horse head of her cane. Brenda sat beside Sophia like a guard.

Alexander came in last.

Victoria had already signed. Her name sat on the line in neat, quick letters, as if she had practiced it.

"Your turn," she said. "Sign it, Alexander. Don't make me wait."

"You've waited two years," he said. "You can wait ten seconds."

"Not one more second."

"One thing first," Alexander said. "The ring. My wedding ring. The one I gave you."

Victoria looked up from the papers.

"I won't sign until you give it back," he said. "I hate to think of my ring on your hand."

Victoria stared at him. Then she laughed out loud.

"That? You want that?" She dug into her handbag. A diamond flashed on her finger as she searched. Then she pulled out a thin silver band and held it up between two fingers. "This cheap thing? What do you even want it for?"

"I'm giving it to Sophia. That's the only thing I'm asking for."

"This ring? It's silver. It's worth nothing. I never even wanted to wear it!"

"I know," Alexander said. "You only wore it to make me think you still loved me."

Victoria's face went tight.

"Then take your junk."

She tossed it to the floor. It bounced off the tiles and rolled away under the chairs, and Alexander had to chase it.

"Look at him," Victoria said. "Running after a cheap ring. Sign it now."

Alexander picked the ring up from the floor and walked over to Sophia.

"This ring is the only thing I have," he said quietly. "And this will be your wedding ring."

Sophia said nothing. She did not want to take it. But Alexander looked at her, deeply and steadily, until she had no choice. Her fingers closed around the ring.

"Quickly! Sign it!" Victoria could not wait to take everything he had.

Alexander picked up the pen and signed. He did not read a word.

The clerk stamped the page.

That was it. Two years, ended by a rubber stamp.

"You understand what that means?" Victoria said, and she could not keep the pleasure out of her voice. "You leave with nothing. The house. The cars. The company. All of it is mine now."

"I understand," Alexander said.

All of it? Half an hour ago, all of it had become his father's. She was happy over nothing, and she didn't even know it.

Victoria's phone lit up on the counter. Alexander saw the name on the screen.

Grant.

Grant Price. The man she had been seeing behind his back for a year. In his first life, the man who ended up with everything his father built.

She answered it while his ink was still wet, and she smiled.

"Yes," she said softly into the phone. "It's done. It's all done."

Victoria ended the call and gathered her things. "Well. That's everything. My lawyers will take every last thing you have, so you'd better be honest."

"Then tell your lawyers to be good at their job."

"Goodbye, Alexander. Good luck with your new life. You'll need it."

He looked past her at the row of chairs. At Beverly, at Margaret, at every face that had stood in that hotel doorway.

"One day," he said, "every one of you will kneel to me."

There was a pause. Then the laughter came. Chloe laughed loudest, both hands over her mouth.

Let them laugh. In four centuries he had seen kings kneel and great masters beg for their lives. This family was a handful of ants fighting over crumbs, and they had no idea who they were laughing at.

Beverly did not laugh. She rose and struck her cane on the floor.

"Enough. It isn't finished." She pointed the cane at the counter. "Sophia. You marry him. Now."

Sophia went white. "Grandma, I did nothing. Someone put us in that room. I don't even remember..."

"Nobody asked what you remember."

"Please, Grandma. I'll go away. I'll leave, I'll never shame you again..."

"And let the whole city laugh at us? No."

"The poor branch finally gets a husband," Chloe said, still giggling. "One with nothing at all. It's a perfect match."

Brenda opened her mouth to shriek. Beverly lifted one hand, and Brenda closed it again.

"Refuse," Beverly said coldly, "and your father's branch is out of this family by morning. Every one of you."

Danny stared at the floor. Brenda's face went red, then grey.

"Who else would take him now?" Chloe asked lightly. "And who else would take her?"

Sophia stood up.

She was still in the borrowed cream dress. Her eyes were red. She tucked a strand of light brown hair behind her ear, and her hand shook, but her voice did not.

"All of you bear witness," she said. "I'll marry him."

The laughter stopped.

Alexander looked at her. The girl who had stayed. The only one, in his first life, who had stayed.

He walked over to her.

"I have nothing now," he said, low, so only she could hear. "Not even a roof."

Sophia lifted her chin. "Then we'll start from nothing."

"Then sign it," Beverly said. "Both of you."

The clerk slid a new form across the counter.

Sophia signed. Alexander signed beside her.

"How sweet," Chloe said. "A wedding with no money and no ring."

"There's a ring," Alexander said.

Sophia opened her hand. The silver ring was still in her palm.

He took her left hand, gently, and slid the ring onto her finger. It was a little loose. She looked down at it, and then up at him, confused.

Alexander said nothing.

Nobody in that room knew there were a thousand bitcoins inside that ring. The ring was the wallet.

Only he knew.