The lawyer explained that the company characterized the arrangement as a private settlement of potential disputes.
Nia remained silent.
Then asked the amount.
"Four million dollars."
For several seconds, she couldn't speak.
Four million dollars.
She looked around her apartment.
At the old dining table Lorraine bought fifteen years earlier.
At the stack of mortgage statements.
At the shoes she'd worn so often that the soles needed replacing.
Four million dollars could eliminate every immediate financial problem in her life.
She could pay off the apartment.
Stop worrying about the maintenance assessment.
Return to school.
And create a degree of security her mother had never enjoyed.
For one brief moment, the offer felt almost impossible to reject.
Then she asked what Asterion wanted in exchange.
Her lawyer described the proposed release and cooperation provisions.
Some were standard settlement concepts.
Others required careful scrutiny because they touched the disputed consent and potentially affected her responsibilities as stewardship representative.
Nia took a slow breath.
"Would accepting the personal payment require me to stop challenging the waiver?"
"The current draft appears intended to resolve related claims broadly. We would need substantial changes and careful conflict review before you could even consider it."
She looked toward Lorraine's photograph.
For a moment, tears filled her eyes.
Then she asked.
"What happens to the employees covered by the trust?"
Her lawyer paused.
"The proposal doesn't adequately address those obligations."
Nia closed her eyes.
There was the answer.
She couldn't accept a personal benefit as a substitute for evaluating the transaction according to the duties she'd agreed to carry.
She asked the lawyer to respond that any legitimate transaction proposal needed to be assessed through the proper governance process, separately from her personal circumstances.
He agreed.
Then he asked whether she wanted time to think about the personal settlement component.
Nia considered the question.
She didn't want to make an emotional decision simply because she was angry at Victor.
But she also recognized that the proposed terms, as written, created a conflict she couldn't ignore.
"Tell them I won't agree to those terms."
The lawyer nodded.
Then asked whether she was all right.
Nia looked toward the stack of bills.
For a moment, her voice trembled.
"Not really."
He waited.
She continued.
"But I know why I can't sign it."
That evening, she called Wei.
She didn't disclose privileged settlement details unnecessarily.
But she explained that the financial pressures in her personal life were becoming difficult to separate emotionally from her stewardship responsibilities.
Wei listened.
Then asked whether she had independent counsel advising her about the conflict.