“You’ve just found something tied to Graham.”
“Of course you’re shaken.”
“I’m trying to protect you from being manipulated.”
Evan spoke.
“I haven’t asked her for anything.”
Harlan turned.
“You’ve occupied company land past notice.”
“My lease ends tonight.”
“You refused relocation compensation.”
“Because your offer required releasing claims to anything below grade.”
Camille looked sharply at Evan.
“What?”
Naomi turned to Harlan.
“What release?”
Harlan’s face changed.
Evan walked to the office.
Returned with a document.
He handed it to Maria.
She passed it to Naomi.
Camille moved beside her.
The redevelopment buyout offer contained a clause:
Tenant relinquishes any claim, possession, or interest in fixtures, equipment, materials, subsurface structures, and historical assets existing on or beneath premises.
Camille read twice.
“Harlan.”
“Standard.”
Naomi said:
“No.”
Everyone turned.
She continued.
“That is not standard Arden relocation language.”
Harlan looked at her.
“Real estate counsel revised for contaminated sites.”
“Who instructed?”
“I don’t know.”
“You signed project authorization.”
“So did Camille.”
Camille’s voice went cold.
“I signed capital authorization.”
“Not this clause.”
Harlan stared.
A distance opened between them.
Twenty-two years of trust on one side.
One paragraph on the other.
Harlan said:
“Whatever Mercer is doing, we are not litigating in a garage.”
He took out his phone.
“I’m calling security and arranging transport.”
Camille stepped between him and the car.
“No.”
Harlan looked astonished.
“Camille.”
“No one moves it.”
“We cannot leave a multimillion-dollar prototype in an unsecured—”
“You said replica five minutes ago.”
Silence.
Naomi watched him.
Maria did too.
Noah looked at Camille with wide eyes.
Harlan’s expression hardened.
“You do not understand what you are doing.”
Camille held his gaze.
“Then explain.”
He did not.
That frightened her more than if he had shouted.
The police came because Naomi requested an incident report documenting discovery and preventing unilateral removal.
Not to arrest anyone.
Not yet.
The AR-7 remained in place overnight under independent security hired jointly by Arden counsel and Evan’s attorney.
Demolition was suspended.
Harlan objected.
Camille overruled him.
At 10:40 that evening, after Noah had gone upstairs to sleep, Camille sat on a rolling shop stool beside the race car.
She had changed nothing.
Still the pink dress.
Her heels rested beside her because her feet hurt.
Evan sat six feet away on an overturned bucket.
The garage was quieter.
Camille looked at the AR-7.
“My father let me sit in the mock-up once.”
Evan listened.
“I was ten.”
“He told me never touch anything red.”
“I asked why.”
“He said because engineers color dangerous switches red so executives know what not to touch.”