Chapter 12 - BASTIAN’S VERSION
Bastian requested a private settlement conference.
Serena agreed with lawyers present.
I did not attend.
She told me later.
He began with apology.
Not enough.
Then explanation.
He said Bianca had spent his entire childhood telling him the Coletti family survived because men carried family structures women could not.
He hated parts of that thinking.
Then replicated them.
He said when he married Serena, he believed he was entering a family where everyone secretly expected him to become my successor because I had no son.
Did I ever tell him that?
No.
Did some relatives imply?
Probably.
At dinners people called him “the man Alaric never had.”
I had laughed.
Another joke that became architecture in someone else’s head.
Then Helena’s trust frustrated him.
He learned Serena had protected interests he could not access.
He felt excluded.
Instead of respecting that, he began looking for pathways.
Then Coletti Freight weakened.
Pressure increased.
Then Faye.
He said the relationship began as escape, then became serious after pregnancy.
He claimed he intended to leave Serena after birth but feared divorce would destroy East Harbor negotiations and expose Coletti finances.
So he tried to sequence everything.
Serena deliver.
Temporary representation.
Committee stage.
Separation.
Faye.
Merger.
New family.
He said he never intended to take Serena’s trust principal.
Only influence the governance process.
That distinction made the scheme more believable.
Still wrong.
Then the male-heir story.
Bastian admitted he knew the current trust was gender-neutral before the dinner.
There.
Bianca did not.
At least not fully.
He let her believe Faye’s son mattered because her certainty helped pressure relatives.
He told Faye a similar story.
He manipulated his own mother’s prejudice.
Then why the adoption research?
He said it was exploratory.
“If Serena had ever agreed to co-parent Faye’s child—”
Serena stopped him.
“I did not know Faye existed.”
He had no answer.
Then the signature.
He admitted showing Serena only signature pages.
“Because if you read the whole thing, you’d ask questions.”
That may become fraud.
Then:
“I thought the document expressed what you would have wanted anyway if you were unconscious.”
Serena said:
“You thought what benefited you was what I would want.”
There.
The core of coercion.
Then Faye.
Did he love her?
“Yes.”
Did he love Serena?
“I did.”
Past tense.
Maybe honest.
Then Serena asked:
“Do you love our daughter?”
He cried.
“Yes.”
“Then don’t make her repair what you did to me.”
Good.
They began discussing future parenting through professionals.
No reconciliation.
Then Bastian’s lawyers proposed broad financial settlement:
Serena receives larger share of liquid marital accounts.
Bastian keeps more Coletti Freight equity.
House sold or Serena buys him out.
Mutual releases on certain civil claims.
Separate from regulatory matters.
Serena considered.
No revenge.
Then Bastian offered to withdraw East Harbor COO demand.
Good.
Could company still merge?
Yes.
He would remain Coletti executive unless board removed him.
Then an independent internal investigation at Coletti Freight.
Board discovered he had circulated the misleading succession deck without full approval.
He was placed on temporary leave.
Not fired yet.
Then First Dominion.
They had emails showing Bastian corrected one banker privately:
“Montesi inheritance is not collateral.”
Good for him.
But another email:
“The relationship makes repayment environment materially stronger.”
Vague.
Regulators would decide.
Then Bianca called Faye.
No-contact order applied only Serena, not Faye.
Bianca said:
“You ruined everything by giving them messages.”
Faye recorded? Better not. She preserved voicemail.
Then:
“That boy was supposed to save this family.”
Faye sent the voicemail to her lawyer.
Her answer:
“My son is not a rescue plan.”
That sentence later became one of the few things Serena and Faye agreed on completely.
Then Serena’s contractions began again.
This time real.
Three weeks early.
She called me at 2:14 a.m.
“Dad.”
I was dressed before she finished.
“Hospital.”
“Yes.”
“Baby?”
“Coming.”
The financial war stopped instantly.
Because for all the language about branches, heirs, and millions, the person arriving had never been a governance mechanism.
May you like
She was a child.
And the first test of whether any of us had learned that was about to begin.
