Chapter 11 - THE ARCHIVE
The archive had grown through convenience.
Editors worked remotely.
Freelancers downloaded footage.
Backups existed on:
studio drives,
cloud storage,
portable drives,
editing laptops.
Caleb admitted:
“Not perfectly.”
That answer was honest.
For the first time in weeks, Joshua appreciated honesty more than reassurance.
Rivas Rewind hired a data-security consultant.
They mapped the archive.
Freelancers were asked to certify deletion of unneeded minor footage.
Company backups were narrowed.
Raw footage involving children received retention limits.
Not because every family video was dangerous.
Because “we keep everything forever” had never been a real policy.
It was habit.
Lily participated in one meeting with a child advocate recommended by Sunridge.
The advocate asked:
“What videos do you want kept?”
Lily answered:
“Grandpa falling in the pool.”
Nicholas protested:
“That wasn’t me.”
Lily laughed.
Then:
“Baking with Dad.”
“What do you want deleted?”
Lily became serious.
“Me crying.”
“All crying?”
She thought.
“If I say delete it.”
Simple.
The company created a minor-participant request process.
Caleb looked embarrassed by how obvious it seemed.
Then Lily asked:
“Can I delete the egg video?”
Joshua looked at Caleb.
Caleb answered:
“Yes.”
They deleted the master.
Then Mason spoke.
“There’s still one copy.”
Everyone turned.
He explained the birthday cameras had uploaded a low-resolution proxy automatically to the sponsor-review portal.
Sunridge had it.
Dana confirmed.
She offered to delete it immediately.
Lily said yes.
Dana did.
Then Mason looked uncomfortable again.
Joshua noticed.
“What?”
Mason hesitated.
“The pool edit.”
“What about it?”
“I sent a draft to an external sound designer last year.”
“Did he delete it?”
“I don’t know.”
Joshua’s anger rose.
Caleb interrupted.
“We’ll find out.”
Not:
It’s fine.
Not:
Don’t worry.
We’ll find out.
Progress.
The sound designer responded the next day.
He still had the file.
He deleted it and certified deletion.
Joshua exhaled.
Then another message came from him.
Before deleting it, he asked:
“Do you also want the six other Lily drafts Caleb sent me?”
Joshua turned toward Caleb.
May you like
Caleb went completely still.
“Six?”
