Chapter 4 - THE VOTE BEFORE SUNRISE
The cloud copy preserved the revocation, but delivery mattered.
Bell Meridian's bylaws required the corporate secretary to receive a signed revocation before voting began. Gabriel had recorded and signed the document but never transmitted it. Rebecca argued the emergency upload to her account should count. Adrian said private counsel was not the company.
The board postponed the sale for seventy-two hours rather than risk an invalid vote.
Adrian called the delay catastrophic. Bell Meridian supplied medication-monitoring systems to hospitals. Northbridge had promised capital to replace aging equipment and retain thousands of employees. Without the sale, lenders could demand new guarantees.
His argument contained real pressure, not merely greed.
Rebecca requested an independent review. It found Bell Meridian needed financing, but not necessarily Northbridge. Adrian had rejected two smaller offers that would preserve Gabriel's control and eliminate his consulting payment.
The hidden package was worth forty-two million dollars over five years.
Adrian said the compensation was for post-sale work and had been disclosed to the board's transaction committee. Two directors confirmed knowing about it. The minutes described only “executive continuity arrangements,” not the amount.
Gabriel remained unconscious.
Mara returned to the convenience store and found reporters waiting. Online accounts accused her of staging a rescue for reward money. The store owner suspended her because the publicity frightened customers.
She considered withdrawing from the case.
Then Detective Lena Ortiz showed her the mansion's interior access logs. Mara and Ellie entered through the unlocked front door at 11:19 p.m. Adrian had remotely disabled the door alarm six minutes earlier.
He claimed he expected a private nurse.
The nurse, Sheila Grant, testified that Adrian dismissed her at ten forty-five. He said Gabriel wanted family privacy. When she left, Gabriel was drowsy but speaking and not restrained.
Sheila had logged the IV bag's serial number and remaining volume. The bag recovered by paramedics held substantially less fluid than expected and contained sedative concentration inconsistent with her preparation.
Adrian suggested Sheila made the dosing error and was blaming him to save her license.
Then investigators reviewed the mansion's delivery camera.
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At 9:08 p.m., a courier handed Adrian a small insulated medical package.
The sender was a clinic owned by the physician who had written Gabriel's palliative-care letter.
