His father’s will had divided the ownership of Whitmore Holdings between his two sons.

But it contained a provision for the possibility that one of them might not be found: if Andrew failed to return within seven years of his disappearance, he would be declared legally dead, and at that point Daniel would receive complete control of the entire company.

Six years had passed.

Only four months remained before that deadline expired.

And Vanessa had spent the last two years persuading Daniel into a marriage arrangement — one that, in its fine print, would give her ownership interests and voting power across several of the family businesses, folded in among the ordinary provisions of a prenuptial agreement he had signed without imagining a reason to fear it.

If Andrew returned before the marriage was finalized, the entire structure would collapse; the will’s division would reassert itself, the company would be split, and the arrangement giving Vanessa her share would have to be torn up and rewritten from nothing.