Chapter 6 - Tuesday, Nine O’Clock
The boardroom looked smaller than Claire remembered.
Perhaps it was because she no longer entered it as Ethan’s guest.
Daniel met her outside with Andrea Bell and Meridian’s corporate secretary.
“Are you comfortable proceeding?”
Claire nodded.
“If you need a break, ask,” Andrea said. “There is no prize for making this harder on yourself.”
Inside, the independent directors sat around a long table.
No champagne waited on the sideboard.
No photographer stood near the windows.
Ethan’s place at the head of the table was empty.
The initial session would review the investigation without management present. He and Vanessa would respond separately afterward.
Claire took the chair indicated by the secretary.
Daniel began with a reminder.
The directors were considering possible misconduct and risks to the company. Their decisions had to rest on verified evidence, not speculation about anyone’s marriage.
Claire felt grateful for the words.
Then Andrea presented.
Documents appeared on the screen.
Approval records.
Payment instructions.
The Aster engagement.
The undisclosed fee-sharing arrangement.
Where a finding remained uncertain, Andrea said so.
Where records contradicted an explanation, she showed both.
The room grew very quiet.
Then Daniel turned to Claire.
“Please explain what first drew your attention.”
She opened her seven slides.
Her voice trembled on the first sentence.
By the third, it had steadied.
She described Northstar’s existing integration capabilities.
She identified tasks Aster proposed charging for that Northstar employees already performed.
She compared the original service schedule with its revisions.
She explained why the projected fees did not align with the work described.
Nobody interrupted to tell her she was quiet.
Nobody called the company her old software project.
A director named Helen Voss leaned forward.
“Could there be legitimate additional work we haven’t seen?”
“Yes,” Claire said. “That’s why I asked for a detailed scope. My concern increased when the descriptions changed without supporting material.”
Helen nodded.
Another director asked whether Claire opposed the acquisition itself.
“No. I supported the strategic logic before these issues emerged. But a sound combination doesn’t make every arrangement around it acceptable.”
She answered questions for twenty-five minutes.
Then Daniel thanked her and asked her to wait outside.
Ethan was arriving.
Claire stood slowly.
When the door opened, they met in the corridor.
He looked at her, then at the folder in her hand.
For a second, neither spoke.
“You’re enjoying this?” he asked quietly.
She felt the old impulse to reassure him.
To explain her sadness until he could recognize it.
Instead, she answered simply.
“No.”
He glanced toward the open boardroom.
“They don’t know what this has done to our marriage.”
Claire held his gaze.
“Our marriage didn’t write those agreements.”
His face changed.
Then the secretary called his name.
He went inside.
Claire waited in a smaller conference room with water, crackers, and a window overlooking another building’s brick wall.
Mara called to check on her.
Claire declined the call and sent a message.
Still here. I’ll call later.
An hour passed.
Then another.
She heard footsteps in the corridor, doors opening, voices too muffled to understand.
At noon, Andrea came in.
“Would you like to leave? We may be some time.”
Claire considered it.
Then she nodded.
“Yes.”
She did not need to sit outside the room where people decided what to do with Ethan.
Her part was finished for now.
Daniel called that afternoon.
The board had placed Ethan and Vanessa on administrative leave, appointed an interim chief executive, and authorized further review.
The acquisition would pause.
Access to certain systems and payment authority had been restricted.
No final conclusion about every allegation had been reached.
Claire listened carefully.
“What happens to the employees?”
“The company continues operating. That is our priority.”
“And Northstar?”
“We’ll work through the process with their board.”
After the call, Claire stood in Sophie’s kitchen.
Her sister watched her.
“Well?”
Claire explained.
Sophie took a breath.
“Are you okay?”
Claire looked toward the tiny clothes drying on a rack near the window.
“I think I need lunch.”
Sophie laughed softly.
“That I can do.”
There was no triumphant speech.
May you like
No sudden feeling that humiliation had been repaid.
Just a sandwich, an exhausted body, and the knowledge that the truth no longer depended on her holding it alone.
