Chapter 9 - THE MAN WHO EXPECTED HER TO COME BACK
James finally admitted that part.
Not publicly.
In mediation.
“I thought you’d come home in a week.”
Taylor sat across from him.
“You locked the door.”
“You needed to learn.”
“What?”
“Responsibility.”
She almost laughed.
“You gave me twelve dollars.”
“You had friends.”
“I had no one.”
“You had your mother.”
Jessica sat in another room with counsel.
Taylor leaned forward.
“No. I didn’t.”
James looked away.
For the first time, shame.
Small.
Then he recovered.
“I was under impossible pressure.”
There it was.
His favorite defense.
Business debt.
Mortgage fear.
Supplier collapse.
A wife who panicked.
A daughter asking questions.
“I planned to replace the college money.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
“Did you tell me?”
“No.”
“You blamed me.”
His jaw tightened.
“I thought if the bank learned what happened, everything would collapse.”
“So you picked me.”
He said nothing.
Taylor continued:
“You decided I could survive being destroyed.”
James looked at her.
“You did survive.”
The sentence froze the room.
Taylor leaned back.
Then smiled once.
“That’s the difference between us.”
“What?”
“You think surviving what you did proves it was acceptable.”
James’s face changed.
He had no answer.
Then his lawyer interrupted.
The independent Hartwell committee had completed its preliminary findings.
James would be suspended pending final review.
Not fired yet.
Suspended.
James stood.
“This is her doing.”
Taylor pointed toward the committee report.
“My name isn’t on the decision.”
“You bought the company.”
“I recused.”
“You built the situation.”
“You built the record.”
James left furious.
That night, an anonymous package arrived at Sterling Meridian.
Inside:
Hartwell procurement logs.
A note.
James isn’t the only one.
The logs showed Hartwell’s CEO, David Shaw, had approved Millstone exceptions repeatedly.
Maybe because the vendor was useful.
Maybe because he received something too.
The acquisition problem grew.
Taylor could not cleanly isolate her father anymore.
May you like
If she wanted the truth, she might have to expose executives Sterling Meridian had planned to retain.
The revenge was becoming expensive.
