Chapter 7 - THE SIGNATURE
Vanessa had signed the ownership agreement eight months earlier.
One month before the affair Luca could prove.
I sat in Elena’s office the next morning with the document between us.
“She helped him set it up,” I said.
“Or she took it over,” Elena replied. “We stick to what the records establish.”
Mara had brought more than printouts.
She had preserved internal messages, payment reports, and a backup of the review she had started before Martin threatened her.
Elena arranged for an independent examiner to work with the material.
I watched people label drives and record dates.
For the first time, the truth looked like work instead of a miracle.
Luca arrived at noon.
I handed him the email.
“No outside disclosure yet.”
He read it.
“Yes.”
“You told Mara to keep quiet.”
“I told Martin we needed a clear picture before making accusations.”
“Mara had already given you one.”
“She had irregular invoices. I wanted proof of who created them.”
“And your company’s reputation intact.”
He set the page down.
“Yes.”
The answer hurt more because he didn’t dress it up.
“Would you have told me if Vanessa hadn’t left?”
“I don’t know how quickly.”
I stepped back.
“That’s not good enough.”
“I know.”
“No. You know now.”
Elena interrupted before he could answer.
“We have something.”
The examiner had compared my signatures.
Six approvals used the same image file.
Not similar.
Identical, down to a faint gray mark from a scanner.
One payment had been submitted from a device named RYAN-HOME.
I closed my eyes.
Proof.
Small, ugly, beautiful proof.
Then the examiner opened another record.
The vendor account had been added through an administrative login.
Martin’s.
“Can he say someone stole his password?” I asked.
“He can say anything,” Elena said. “We’ll see what the rest supports.”
Natalie called.
Her voice was tight.
“Martin called an all-staff meeting.”
“What did he say?”
“That you resigned.”
“I didn’t.”
“I told him that.”
“What happened?”
“He fired me.”
I pressed my fingers against my forehead.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. I recorded my own meeting notes afterward. And I saved the termination email.”
She paused.
“There’s something else.”
“What?”
“Before they walked me out, I saw tomorrow’s board packet.”
My mouth went dry.
“What was in it?”
“A sale proposal.”
Westbridge was selling the redevelopment to a company called Ashford Capital.
May you like
The price was twelve million dollars below my valuation.
And the deal was scheduled to close Friday.
