Diane spoke from behind him.
“He planned for that argument too.”
Raymond opened another file from the sealed drive.
It was an incident report dated that morning, though the version history showed it had been created two days earlier.
The report accused Diane of abusing her credentials and Martin of acting without Callum’s knowledge. It portrayed Callum as the executive who had uncovered the unauthorized proxy and immediately acted to protect both companies.
Martin stared at the screen.
“You were going to put this on me?”
Callum did not face him.
“You made your own choices.”
Martin pushed back his chair.
“You found the Westbridge loss during due diligence,” he said. “You said you would keep it out of the audit if I prepared the paperwork.”
My stomach tightened.
Westbridge had been a failed investment Martin had continued reporting as recoverable. He had hidden the true extent of the loss.
Callum’s eyes hardened.
“Be careful.”
Martin gave a short, broken laugh.
“You already wrote the report.”
Then he looked at me.
“I created the proxy request. Callum gave me a copy of your signature. He said you would sign the leave papers in the morning and the digital authorization would only save time.”
“You knew I had not approved it.”
“Yes.”
The honesty hurt more because he made no effort to soften it.
My father had trusted him for seventeen years.
I looked at Raymond.
“Suspend his access. Preserve every device. Martin will cooperate with the investigation, but he does not leave this room with company records.”
Martin nodded once.
He did not ask me to forgive him.
Vanessa moved toward Callum.
“This has gone far enough. Tell them about the side agreement.”
Callum turned sharply.
“Not now.”
Her face changed.
She opened her handbag and removed a folded document.
“You promised me a board seat and eight percent equity after the merger.”
She placed it on the table.
Raymond read the opening page.
I almost pitied her.
Almost.
“Callum never owned eight percent of Sloan Meridian to give you,” I said.
Vanessa looked between us.
“You said the proxy converted after the wedding.”
“It would have,” Callum replied.
“No,” I said. “It could not.”
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