Chapter 19
“I sound like myself.”
That silenced him.
Maybe he had forgotten what that sounded like.
Maybe I had.
He asked, “Did you give them anything else?”
“No.”
“I need the truth.”
“That is the truth.”
“Nothing about internal transfers?”
“No.”
“Nothing about the bridge facility?”
“No.”
“Nothing about the ownership amendment?”
I froze.
He stopped speaking.
Neither of us breathed.
I stood slowly.
“What ownership amendment?”
“Forget it.”
“What amendment?”
“I misspoke.”
My pulse hammered.
“Damian.”
The line went dead.
I called Mara before I even put on shoes.
She answered immediately.
“What happened?”
I repeated the conversation.
She was quiet.
Then she said, “We do nothing.”
“What?”
“We do not hunt for an amendment because he accidentally mentioned one.”
“But if it explains—”
“The independent reviewers can request it.”
I paced the kitchen.
“What if they do not know it exists?”
“Then Damian should produce it.”
“He may not.”
“That is his decision.”
I stopped.
Every part of me wanted to investigate.
That was the old analyst in me.
Find the missing page.
Reconcile the accounts.
Make the columns agree.
But Mara was right.
The moment I went searching beyond what I had already lawfully preserved, Damian could turn the story back toward me.
So I waited.
Waiting was agony.
At noon, the board requested all Harbor Crown ownership amendments.
At 2:30, Wolfe Meridian’s counsel produced one.
At 4:10, the independent committee asked why it had not been included in the original project data room.
At 5:22, the lenders asked the same thing.
I did not see the document.
I did not need to.
The existence of an undisclosed amendment did not automatically mean misconduct.
But it meant the contradiction had an explanation Damian had failed to provide when first asked.
The question shifted.
It was no longer simply, Who owns the collateral?
It became, Why was the document affecting that answer missing?
Friday night, Celeste came to my temporary apartment.
I had no idea how she found the address.
When I opened the door, she stood in the hallway wearing a black coat and no pearls.
For some reason, the missing pearls frightened me more than anger would have.
“How did you find me?”
“I asked.”
“Who?”
“Does it matter?”
“Yes.”
She ignored the question.
“I need five minutes.”
I should have closed the door.
Instead, I stepped into the hall and pulled it shut behind me.
“You are not coming inside.”