Chương 13
Savannah felt judged by the precision.
“Did he leave you?” she asked Rebecca.
Rebecca looked toward the window. “He came home one night and said he had accepted that our marriage was finished. I had not said it was finished.”
“How long ago?”
“Five years.”
“Why didn’t you file for divorce?”
“I did.”
Everyone looked at her.
Rebecca took a folder from her bag. “The petition was dismissed because Richard could not be properly served. The address he used was a corporate apartment. His attorneys challenged jurisdiction. Then my mother got sick, and I stopped having money for a fight.”
“Did he support your son?”
“Sometimes. Through trusts, reimbursements, school payments, never a consistent arrangement that made him easy to locate or enforce against. When I pushed, the payments stopped. When I stopped, they resumed.”
Emily added, “The irregular payments created some of the transfers I traced.”
Rebecca removed a photograph. It showed Richard kneeling beside the boy at a science fair. The date printed on the back was eighteen months earlier.
Savannah stared at it.
“He visited?”
“Twice a year, when it suited him.”
“Did your son know who he was?”
“He knew Richard was his father.”
“What did Richard tell him about us?”
Rebecca’s eyes hardened. “That he was building a stable life and would bring him into it when the time was right.”
Savannah looked away.
On the wall hung a framed photograph of Naomi with three other attorneys at a charity race. One woman held her shoes in her hand. Savannah focused on the shoes.
“His name is Benjamin?” she asked.
“Ben.”
Savannah nodded.
Rebecca returned the photograph to the folder. “He does not know about the wedding yet. My sister took his tablet. Children at school will know by tomorrow.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So am I.”
Emily placed a drive on the table. Unlike the silver one from the gift box, this was plain black and labeled with blue tape.
“This contains documents already provided to counsel,” she said. “We are not giving Savannah a copy today. We can describe the categories.”
Naomi nodded.
Emily outlined the archive logs, lender drafts, board consents, trust instructions, hotel sale resolutions, and reimbursements connected to Rebecca. She spoke with the controlled speed Savannah remembered from meetings. When nervous, Emily became more precise.
“The critical gap is Schedule A,” Emily said. “The instruction Savannah signed references a schedule defining authorized votes. The version in the board file has no schedule. The version in the electronic packet was uploaded with one, then replaced.”
“What did the original schedule say?” Naomi asked.
“I have not opened it. The archive requires the second key.”
“Who has it?”
“Martin.”
“Will he cooperate?”
“I don’t know.”
Savannah said, “He spoke last night.”
Emily’s face changed. “Martin was there?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Fear has office hours.”
Emily gave her a brief, unwilling look of amusement.
Savannah continued. “He sent a preservation notice and said he kept the archive active.”
“He told Richard he disabled it.”
“Yes.”
“That may be the first useful lie Martin has ever told.”
Rebecca shifted in her chair. “Can we discuss the marriage issue separately? Richard’s attorney contacted me this morning.”
“What did he want?” Daniel asked.
“A confidential settlement. He wants me to acknowledge permanent separation before his relationship with Savannah began and agree that we both believed the marriage legally ended.”
Naomi said, “Did you believe that?”
“No.”
“What did he offer?”
Rebecca’s jaw tightened. “Enough to pay for Ben’s school and college.”
Savannah studied her.
“Are you considering it?” Emily asked.
Rebecca turned toward her. “I am considering everything that protects my son.”
“If you sign, Richard will use it to minimize the fraud.”
“The corporate fraud is not my responsibility.”
“It is connected.”
“To you. To Savannah. To this company. I spent five years trying to make him pay for braces.”
Emily leaned back.
The friction between them surprised Savannah. She had imagined Emily and Rebecca united by clean anger. Instead they were two women with overlapping evidence and different needs.
Rebecca looked at Savannah. “He may offer you something too.”
“He already offered explanations.”
“He will improve the offer.”
Savannah thought of the Maldives, the trust, the board title, and the blank proxy. “He doesn’t know how.”
Rebecca almost smiled. “He always knows how.”
The meeting paused while Naomi ordered sandwiches no one had requested. The receptionist brought a tray with turkey, vegetables, chips, and small plastic cups of mustard. Emily took the pickle from her sandwich and placed it on the edge of the plate.
She had hated pickles since childhood.
Savannah took it and ate it.
Emily watched but said nothing.
Naomi returned to the evidence. “What outcome does each person want?”
Emily answered first. “Stop the property sale. Restore the legitimate board. Establish what was forged. Recover my shares if possible.”
“Possible is doing work there,” Naomi said.
“I know.”
Rebecca said, “A divorce, enforceable support, protection from retaliation, and privacy for my son.”
Naomi looked at Savannah.
Savannah opened her mouth, then closed it.
Yesterday she would have answered without hesitation. The marriage, the company position, Richard, her mother’s approval, the future arranged in airport transfers and private rooms.
“I want to know what I did,” she said.
Emily looked at her.
“And after that?” Naomi asked.
“I don’t know.”
“That is acceptable for today.”
Charles joined by video with his attorney. He reported that three independent directors supported delaying the Monday vote, but Margaret and Richard disputed their authority. A lender had issued a default notice based on the frozen acquisition accounts. Payroll was secure for the month, but several vendors had paused work.
“Public exposure is already affecting operations,” Charles said.
Emily’s face tightened. “The sale would have stripped the company.”
“I am not blaming you.”
“You are listing consequences in my direction.”
“I am trying to understand them.”
May you like
Savannah interrupted. “Can the vote be stopped?”
Charles’s attorney said a temporary agreement was possible if all sides consented. Without consent, the dispute might move to court, but no one should assume immediate relief.
