Chapter 4: The Deal He Tried to Make
They held Derek in a private room off the main corridor while the board completed the credential transfer.
I had asked Malcolm to give me ten minutes alone with him before the attorneys arrived.
Malcolm had looked at me for a long moment, then nodded once and closed the door behind him.
Derek was seated at a narrow conference table.
His jacket was still on.
He looked like a man who had decided that if he kept his jacket on, none of this was entirely real yet.
I sat down across from him.
Neither of us spoke for a moment.
"How long?" he finally said.
"How long what?"
"How long have you been building this?"
"The Northstar position in Aurelia?
Fourteen months." I folded my hands on the table.
"I started moving capital the week after I found the first altered invoice."
His eyes narrowed.
"You found it yourself?"
"You left a vendor file open on the home laptop." I kept my voice even.
"You were in the shower.
I wasn't looking for anything.
I just saw it."
Something moved across his face.
Not quite shame.
The specific discomfort of a person who realizes they were careless, not caught.
"I could have explained that," he said.
"You could have," I agreed.
"But you didn't know I'd seen it.
So instead you booked a strategy retreat in Napa with Vanessa for the following weekend and told me it was mandatory."
He leaned back.
"Claire—"
"I don't need an apology, Derek.
I need you to understand what happens next."
He went quiet.
"The board is filing a formal complaint with the SEC in the morning," I said.
"Garrett's report goes with it.
Fourteen months of payments, thirty-seven transactions, four hundred and thirty-one thousand dollars." I paused.
"And Sylvia."
His jaw tightened at the name.
"Who is she?" I asked again.
"Because she knew tonight was happening before it happened.
That means someone told her.
And the only people who knew the full timeline were Malcolm, Garrett, the general counsel, and me." I watched him.
"So she didn't hear it from our side."
"She's no one," he said.
"Drop it."
"The SEC won't drop it."
He stood up.
The chair scraped back hard.
He walked to the window — there was nothing outside but a dark courtyard — and stood with his back to me.
"I can give you the offshore account," he said.
"There's more than what Garrett found.
I can give you the full number, the routing, all of it.
Voluntarily." He turned around.
"In exchange for keeping Sylvia out of it."
I looked at him.
"You're trying to protect her."
"I'm trying to manage the damage."
"Derek." I kept my voice quiet.
"You pushed me into a table tonight.
In front of two hundred people.
You told me I was decorative.
You st*al from the company I own, you gave my jewelry to your mistress, and now you want to negotiate." I stood up.
"There is no deal."
His expression hardened.
"Then I'll contest the acquisition.
I'll argue you had insider knowledge of the investigation when you structured the purchase.
I'll tie this up in litigation for three years."
"You can try," I said.
"My attorneys have been preparing for that argument since March."
He stared at me.
"You thought of everything," he said.
It wasn't admiration.
It was something closer to disbelief — the specific shock of a person who underestimated someone for years and is only now calculating the full cost.
"I had a lot of time," I said.
"You were usually away on retreats."
I walked to the door and knocked twice.
Malcolm opened it immediately.
"The attorneys can come in," I said.
May you like
I didn't look back at Derek.
But I heard him sit back down.
