Chapter 10 - The Edited Clip
The edited video appeared online before breakfast.
Seven seconds.
Me slapping Portia.
Nothing before it.
Nothing showing Maisie.
Nothing showing the broken vase or Portia lunging for the envelope.
The caption called me a violent Mercer heir attacking his wife at a family wedding.
By nine o’clock, three reporters were outside my hotel.
By ten, Mercer Holdings’ board secretary asked whether I would voluntarily step back from public duties until “the domestic matter” was resolved.
Portia had changed the battlefield.
Daniel wanted silence.
Flora wanted the full video released immediately.
I wanted to drive to the mansion and demand that Portia tell the truth.
Instead, I held Maisie while she pushed a plastic spoon against my tie and tried to feed me pieces of banana.
That small act stopped me.
Everything I did now had to be about protecting her, not punishing Portia.
“We don’t release anything publicly yet,” I said.
Flora stared at me.
“Why?”
“Because Maisie’s face is in it.”
Daniel nodded.
We gave the unedited footage to Portia’s counsel and the court under seal instead.
The family physician provided his documentation of Maisie’s cheek after the wedding.
Flora submitted a sworn statement describing the slap.
The security director submitted the deletion request.
Then Portia surprised us.
She admitted striking Maisie.
Her lawyer called it “a single impulsive act during a chaotic accident” and emphasized that I had subsequently hit Portia hard enough to leave bruising.
It was smarter than denying the video.
She surrendered the lie before the lie could destroy her.
At the hearing, the judge did not praise either of us.
He ordered that Maisie remain temporarily with me because of her age, Portia’s admitted strike, and Portia’s attempt to mischaracterize it.
But he also ordered me to have no direct contact with Portia except through counsel and required both of us to participate in separate evaluations before any long-term custody decision.
My relief was mixed with humiliation.
Outside the courthouse, Daniel handed me another filing.
Portia had sent the edited clip to Mercer’s independent directors along with a claim that I had also used company funds for personal legal expenses.
“That’s false.”
“I know.”
The board didn’t.
Attached to her complaint were three payments from a Mercer account to Daniel’s firm.
For one terrible minute, they looked real.
Daniel examined the dates.
“These aren’t your legal bills.”
I looked closer.
They were old corporate invoices that had been recoded.
Someone had changed the descriptions in the accounting system.
And the edits had been made the previous night.
Portia had failed to take Maisie from me.
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So she had moved directly against my position inside the company.
📖 Keeping Maisie safe cost Portia her first legal advantage, and she answered by turning Mercer Holdings itself into the next battleground. 👇
