“Give my investment group sixty-five percent of Sentinel Arc. Cancel the Crescent Harbor financing. Terminate Miss Carter immediately. I withdraw every claim against her and the restaurant.”
Noah laughed.
“You came into my building to extort me.”
“I came to offer certainty.”
“Get out.”
Mercer’s expression changed.
“You have four hours.”
“For what?”
“The emergency hearing on our injunction.”
Noah’s lawyer went pale.
Mercer enjoyed that.
“If the judge freezes Crescent Harbor’s financing pending litigation, your bridge facility disappears.”
He checked his watch.
“Your lenders move tomorrow morning.”
Then he leaned toward Emily.
“And this time, when Mr. Caldwell loses everything, he’ll know exactly which waitress caused it.”
Part 3
For the first time since the restaurant, Emily wished she had stayed silent.
Not because Mercer frightened her.
Because he might be right about the consequences.
She sat alone in Noah’s office after everyone else rushed into legal meetings.
Outside the glass walls, employees pretended not to watch.
Noah came in twenty minutes later.
Emily spoke before he could.
“You should fire me.”
“No.”
“Listen to me.”
“I am.”
“No, you’re preparing to disagree.”
“That is because you are about to say something stupid.”
She stood.
“If I resign and state that I acted independently, maybe Mercer loses the basis for stopping the Crescent Harbor financing.”
“No.”
“You can save eight hundred jobs.”
“I said no.”
“This isn’t about me.”
“Exactly.”
Emily stared at him.
Noah closed the door.
“This is about whether someone can commit fraud, get caught, then weaponize the cost of litigation until everyone apologizes for noticing.”
“You don’t know if we can win.”
“No.”
“You could lose your company.”
“Yes.”
“Your employees could lose everything.”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you acting so calm?”
“I’m not calm.”
He walked to the window.
“I’m terrified.”
That answer disarmed her.
Noah looked down at the street.
“Six years ago, when Sentinel Arc was twelve people in a rented loft, I told everyone we were building a company where the smartest person in the room could speak even if they had the least impressive title.”
He turned toward her.
“Somewhere along the way, I started believing expensive suits instead.”
Emily said nothing.
“You reminded me what that promise meant.”
He sat at his desk.
“So no, I’m not firing you because a man who lied to me demands it.”
Marlene entered without knocking.
“We may have something.”
She placed a printed access report on Noah’s desk.
“Emily mentioned yesterday that Darzi talked about the patents as if they already understood the architecture.”
Emily leaned closer.
“Yes.”
“Our legal team asked engineering to check whether any unusual internal downloads occurred before the dinner.”
Noah scanned the report.
His expression changed.
“Who is Daniel Reese?”
“My deputy finance director,” Marlene said.
“He downloaded the full acquisition data room at 2:18 a.m. three nights before the restaurant meeting.”
“Was he authorized?” Emily asked.
“For the financial files. Not for the patent architecture.”
Noah stood.
“Where is he?”
Marlene looked grim.
“Called in sick yesterday.”
Noah grabbed his phone.
“Security.”
Ten minutes later, they discovered Daniel’s access badge had been used after midnight on three separate occasions.
An external drive had been connected.
Internal files copied.
A security camera showed Daniel entering the office alone.
But that proved only theft.
Not Mercer’s involvement.
Emily paced.
“What did Darzi say exactly?”
Noah looked at her.
“At dinner?”
“When he talked about firing engineers.”
Emily closed her eyes, replaying the memory.
“He said they wouldn’t need expensive employees because the patents were enough.”
“No.”
She shook her head.
“There was another phrase.”
“What?”
“He said, ‘The architecture is already in our hands.’”
Marlene went still.
Noah whispered, “Our hands.”
Emily nodded.
“Not ‘we’ll have it after closing.’ He said they already had it.”
Noah looked at the stolen-data report.
“If Mercer’s group already possessed stolen proprietary files, then the restaurant negotiation wasn’t merely a hostile deal.”
“It was an attempt to buy the victim after stealing from it,” Marlene said.
Noah’s attorney appeared in the doorway.
“That could change everything at the hearing, but we need a link between Daniel and Mercer.”
Emily thought of Mercer’s arrogance.
His certainty.
His habit of assuming service workers were invisible.
“Maybe the link isn’t digital.”
Noah looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“Mercer doesn’t trust people. Men like him document leverage.”
“That’s a guess.”
“Yes.”
“What kind of documentation?”
“Payment records. Meetings. Promises.”
Noah frowned.
Then his phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Caldwell.”
A frightened male voice spoke.
Noah put it on speaker.
“Mr. Caldwell, it’s Daniel Reese.”
Nobody moved.
Daniel sounded like he hadn’t slept.
“I need protection.”
Noah’s expression became ice.
“You stole from me.”
“I made a mistake.”
“You copied proprietary files.”
“Mercer said it was due diligence.”
“Without authorization?”
“I know.”
Popular Posts
→- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
Recently Viewed
Stories you read recently will appear here.
