Chapter 9 - SOMETHING THEY COULDN’T COPY
We brought Fiona to Adrian’s office.
His associate took her statement.
Every admission.
Every date she could remember.
No promises that cooperation would erase what she had done.
Dad arrived with Ruth and the original license amendment.
He looked at Fiona.
For a moment, she couldn’t look back.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
Dad removed his coat.
“You owe Blake the truth.”
“I’m giving it.”
“Keep going.”
We had the copied signature.
The hidden schedules.
The emails directing Fiona.
But George’s lawyers could still claim confusion.
A family misunderstanding.
A rushed administrative error.
We needed evidence tying the transaction to George personally.
I opened the company plans he had asked me to review two months earlier.
A parking structure.
HSS connections throughout.
George had wanted my opinion on substitutions.
I had warned him that several cheaper components did not match the certified specifications.
He had thanked me.
Then told me the drawings were preliminary.
Now I compared them with the buyer’s presentation.
The substituted components were listed as approved HSS products.
Dad leaned over my shoulder.
“We never certified those.”
Adrian stopped reading.
“Can you establish that?”
Dad pointed to the numbering.
“The product line doesn’t exist.”
Ruth found Mom’s old system in a catalog.
HSS had retained the same coding structure.
The supposed certifications were fabricated.
George was selling more than stolen rights.
He was selling a company with false statements about its products.
I sent my original warning email to Adrian.
It had gone directly to George.
His reply was still there.
LET’S KEEP THIS BETWEEN US UNTIL THE FINANCING IS COMPLETE.
“That’s him,” I said.
Adrian nodded.
“Now we have his knowledge.”
We sent a carefully documented notice to the directors, the buyer, and the company’s independent engineers.
Nobody threatened anyone.
Nobody demanded a payoff.
We told them exactly what we could prove.
Then we asked for the records to be preserved.
At seven, the buyer’s counsel replied.
They were suspending the closing pending review.
Dad exhaled.
Fiona covered her face.
For a moment, I thought we had stopped it.
Then Ruth’s phone rang.
She listened without speaking.
When she hung up, her expression had changed.
“The directors received another document.”
“What document?”
“A removal notice.”
May you like
She looked at Dad.
“According to their records, I stopped being trustee eleven years ago.”
