Chapter 6 - What the Numbers Said
Owen’s explanation came through counsel.
He had accepted consulting payments for market analysis.
He had shared preliminary operating assumptions with people connected to Hadley.
He denied authorizing an attempt to buy the final bid.
He claimed Hadley had acted beyond anything discussed.
Perhaps that part was true.
Perhaps it was simply the most convenient line left to defend.
Independent investigators continued reviewing the records.
The spreadsheet transfer contained preliminary cost data, terminal utilization figures, and internal estimates.
Not the final bid.
Enough to matter.
Enough to make Jake feel sick.
During a private meeting with attorneys present, Owen looked across the conference table at him.
“You would never have listened if I’d said we were overextending.”
Jake stared.
“So you sold information?”
“I didn’t sell the company.”
“You don’t get to choose a smaller name for it.”
Owen’s expression hardened.
“You think you built everything alone.”
“No,” Jake said. “That’s why this matters.”
For a moment, pain moved across Owen’s face.
Then it disappeared beneath resentment.
The meeting ended without a reconciliation.
Jake had imagined such confrontations for ten years, ever since his former partner vanished.
He had expected answers to feel satisfying.
Mostly, they revealed how ordinary greed sounded when spoken aloud.
At the same time, Catherine began receiving requests for interviews.
Some offered payment.
One producer asked whether she could bring Lucy.
Catherine deleted that email immediately.
Another wanted her to hold a stack of prop money.
She stared at the request.
Then she laughed so hard Dolores came into the kitchen to see what had happened.
“Apparently they need a picture to help people understand honesty.”
Dolores read over her shoulder.
“Tell them to photograph a tax return.”
Catherine declined the interviews.
She did agree to speak with the investigators.
Adrian attended.
She repeated the same account she had given on the first afternoon.
No additions.
No polished speeches.
When she could not remember an exact phrase, she said so.
Afterward, Adrian closed his folder.
“You did well.”
“I told them what happened.”
“Exactly.”
The procurement process was paused.
National Continental brought in outside reviewers and requested information from both bidders.
Weeks passed.
Ellison Logistics continued operating.
Trucks broke down.
Customers called.
A warehouse roof developed a leak.
Jake discovered that scandal did not relieve a company of ordinary responsibilities.
He also discovered how much work other people did while he occupied himself with being indispensable.
Denise handled a regional disruption without asking permission for every decision.
His finance director redesigned an expansion plan that did not depend entirely on winning the contract.
Lena, his assistant, began placing personal commitments on his calendar in the same color as board meetings.
When he asked why, she said, “Apparently colors affect what you respect.”
He let the colors remain.
Catherine returned to the house after the security arrangements were reviewed and she agreed to the schedule.
The first morning back, Jake stayed out of her way.
By noon, she found him attempting to clean a coffee spill with decorative guest towels.
She stopped in the doorway.
“What are you doing?”
“Helping.”
“Are those linen?”
He looked at the towels.
“Possibly.”
She sighed.
“An expensive commitment to independence.”
He grinned.
It surprised both of them.
Later, she noticed a revised household employment agreement on the counter.
Regular hours.
Paid leave.
Clear expectations.
A reviewed wage rate.
She read it carefully.
“This is because of what happened?”
“It’s because Nora asked why the company has formal standards I never bothered applying here.”
Catherine looked up.
“And?”
“And I didn’t have a good answer.”
She took the agreement to Adrian.
Not because she distrusted every word.
Because reading something properly had become part of trusting herself.
When she signed, Jake did not call it generosity.
He called it overdue.
That evening, Catherine sat with Lucy at their kitchen table.
A school trip form lay between them.
For once, she did not immediately calculate which expense would have to move.
She could afford it.
Not because she had accepted the fifty thousand dollars.
Because the work she already did was finally being treated like work.
Lucy looked up from the form.
“Can I really go?”
Catherine smiled.
“Yes.”
Her daughter threw both arms around her.
May you like
For a few seconds, the entire world became that small.
And Catherine let it.
