Camille laughed.
“I’m joking.”
He almost smiled.
Then:
“Do you think your dad would like it?”
Camille swallowed.
“Yes.”
“I think he’d correct three labels and then like it.”
Noah nodded.
“That sounds like Dad.”
“Engineers are a disease.”
“You own an engineering company.”
“I know.”
The federal case against Harlan took nearly two years.
He resigned as chairman before indictment.
Then several charges followed.
Obstruction.
Fraud.
Falsification of records.
Conspiracy related to later destruction attempts.
The crash-related conduct was litigated separately through civil and regulatory proceedings because of statute and evidence limitations.
Camille testified.
So did Evan.
So did Frank Mercer’s preserved statement through evidentiary procedure.
The most difficult day was not Harlan’s sentencing.
It was Camille’s deposition about childhood.
Harlan’s attorney asked whether she loved him.
“Yes.”
“Did he treat you as family?”
“Yes.”
“Did he help you after your father died?”
“Yes.”
“Did he ever physically threaten you?”
“No.”
“Did he encourage your education?”
“Yes.”
“Did he support your rise to CEO?”
“Yes.”
The attorney paused.
“Then is it possible your current interpretation is influenced by grief and betrayal rather than Harlan Voss being the villain you now imagine?”
Camille looked at him.
Then at Harlan across the room.
He looked old.
Not monstrous.
That mattered.
She answered:
“I don’t need him to be a villain.”
“He authorized a test my father canceled.”
“He received a supplier warning.”
“He falsified the chassis identification afterward.”
“He ordered evidence concealed.”
“And twenty-two years later, he attempted to demolish the building where he suspected the original prototype remained.”
“Those are actions.”
“My feelings are irrelevant to whether he did them.”
The room became silent.
That answer appeared in newspapers.
Camille hated becoming quotation.
But she stood by it.
Harlan eventually accepted a plea on several counts while maintaining he never intended Graham’s death.
Camille believed that.
It did not absolve him.
At sentencing, Harlan asked permission to address her.
She almost declined.
Then allowed.
He said:
“I loved your father.”
Camille did not move.
“I thought I was saving what we built.”
“When he wanted to halt the program, I believed he was willing to destroy the company to prove a point.”
“I believed the rack risk was manageable.”
“I was wrong.”
His voice shook.
“After he died, every decision I made was about preserving what remained.”
“I told myself telling you the truth would only take your father twice.”
Camille looked at him.
Harlan continued:
“Then years passed.”
“The lie became company history.”
“And I became the person people trusted to explain it.”
“Eventually I stopped knowing where protection ended and self-preservation began.”
Camille believed that too.
He looked at Evan.
“I threatened your father.”
Evan’s jaw tightened.