Chapter 7: Allies in the Shadows
The former CFO, Elaine Voss, agreed to meet me in a parking garage at midnight.
She handed me a flash drive without speaking. On it were internal emails showing Daniel and Richard Hale discussing “accelerating the succession plan” six weeks before the twins died. One line stood out:
If the current majority holder becomes emotionally compromised, control shifts cleanly.
Elaine looked older than she had two years earlier.
“I always knew he was capable of cruelty,” she said. “I never imagined this.”
“Neither did I.”
She hesitated. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to take everything from him the way he took everything from me. Slowly. Publicly. Completely.”
She nodded once.
“Then you’ll need this too.” She slid a second envelope across the table. Inside was a copy of the original partnership agreement—the one that gave me veto power over any sale of the company if I could prove criminal activity by a partner.
May you like
Daniel had forgotten that clause existed.
I had not.
