Chương 7
Jasmine stared at Aaron.
“I saved everything.”
His face emptied.
“What?”
Her breathing became uneven.
“I saved the messages.”
“You deleted those.”
“You told me to.”
Aaron’s voice lowered.
“Jasmine.”
“I backed them up first.”
He looked at her as if she had become a stranger.
She wiped at one eye angrily.
“My father told me you’d blame me if anything went wrong.”
Aaron’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
Ruth turned to Marcus.
“Can counsel preserve the device?”
“Yes.”
“Do it.”
Aaron pushed his chair back.
“This meeting is over.”
“No,” Ruth said.
He looked at her.
She did not blink.
“This meeting is just beginning.”
Aaron’s hand closed around the back of his chair.
“I am the chief executive of this company.”
“For the moment.”
That sentence finally broke through him.
He stared at her.
One of the directors looked away.
Another folded his hands.
Daniel’s breathing slowed.
Jasmine sat down and covered her mouth.
Aaron looked around the table, searching for someone who would tell him Ruth had gone too far.
Nobody did.
Then he looked at me.
Not as a husband.
Not even as an enemy.
As if I were the last familiar object in a room that had suddenly rearranged itself.
“Alyssa.”
I hated that part of me still responded to the sound.
Not enough to save him.
Enough to mourn what I once thought the name meant in his mouth.
“What?” I said.
He swallowed.
“Tell them this can be fixed.”
I looked at Marcus on the screen.
Then at Ruth.
Then at Jasmine, who was crying silently now without trying to hide it.
Finally, I looked back at Aaron.
“The patents can be reviewed.”
His shoulders eased by a fraction.
“The licenses can be renegotiated if the company survives the compliance process.”
He waited.
“But I cannot fix what you chose to hide.”
His face went rigid.
Ruth opened a folder in front of her.
“Aaron Prescott, pending an independent investigation, I am moving that the board place you on immediate administrative leave.”
For a second, Aaron did not react at all.
Then he laughed.
It was not amusement.
It was the brittle sound of a man hearing a door close somewhere behind him.
“You’re serious.”
Ruth did not move.
“Completely.”
“You cannot remove the founder in the middle of an acquisition.”
“I am not removing you.”
“You just said administrative leave.”
“Pending investigation.”
“That is removal with better stationery.”
One of the directors shifted in his chair.
Ruth folded her hands.
“The motion is on the table.”
Aaron looked at Daniel.
“Say something.”
Daniel stared at him.
“What do you want me to say?”
“That this is insane.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“I want to know where the money went.”
Aaron looked away.
Ruth called for a second.
A director named Helena Marks raised her hand.
“Second.”
The room seemed to shrink around Aaron.
His breathing changed.
He still looked composed from a distance, but I knew the small signs.
His left thumb rubbed once across the side of his index finger.
He did that when he was trying not to explode.
Ruth asked for discussion.
Aaron stood.
“I am discussing it.”
“No,” Ruth said.
“You are reacting to it.”
His eyes flashed.
“You people are about to destroy forty billion dollars in market value because an assistant panicked and my wife got offended over a seat.”
Jasmine jerked as if he had slapped her.
I felt something cold settle in my chest.
There it was.
Even now.
The story had already become somebody else’s fault.
Ruth’s expression barely changed.
“This is not about a seat.”
Aaron pointed toward me.
“It started because she walked off the plane.”
“No,” Daniel said.
Aaron turned.
Daniel continued.
“It started because the treasury team could not reconcile the reserve accounts.”
“You knew about that yesterday.”
“I knew about a discrepancy.”
“You said you were handling it.”
“I was trying to.”
“You failed.”
Daniel flinched.
Aaron saw it and pressed harder.
“You signed the certification.”
“Based on information from you.”
“You signed it.”
Daniel stood.
His chair rolled backward and bumped the wall.
“Yes.”
His voice shook.
“I signed it.”
He swallowed.
“And if that costs me my job, I’ll take it.”
Aaron stared at him.
“But I am not taking your part with me.”
The room went quiet.
I watched Daniel’s face.
He looked terrified.
Not heroic.
Not relieved.
Just terrified.
That made me believe him more.
Ruth called the vote.
Aaron remained standing while hands rose around the table.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Then Helena.
Unanimous except for Aaron, who did not have a vote on his own leave under the company’s bylaws.
Marcus spoke from the screen.
“The motion passes.”
Aaron sat down.
Not because he accepted it.
Because his knees seemed to stop cooperating for a second.
Ruth pushed a document across the table.
“Effective immediately, you are not to access company systems except through counsel.”
Aaron looked at the paper.
“You think IT can lock me out of my own company?”
Marcus answered.
“They already have.”
That hurt him.
I saw it.
Aaron reached for his phone on the table.
Ruth put one finger on it.
“Leave it.”
He looked at her hand.
“Move.”
“No.”
His face hardened.
“It is my personal phone.”
Marcus spoke quickly.
“It contains company communications subject to preservation.”
Aaron turned toward the screen.
“You don’t have the right to seize it.”
“We are not seizing it.”
Ruth said.
“You may retain it after counsel images company data.”
Aaron laughed again.
“This is unbelievable.”
Then his gaze shifted to Jasmine.
She had gone very still.
“Your phone too.”
Marcus nodded.
“Yes.”
She looked sick.
“My personal messages are on there.”
“Counsel can limit the collection.”
“My photos.”
“Those are not relevant.”
“My bank app.”
“Also not relevant.”
She hugged the bag against her chest anyway.
Aaron watched her.
“You said you backed up the messages.”
Jasmine looked at him.
“Yes.”
“Where?”
May you like
Ruth immediately cut in.
“Do not answer that.”
