Arthur Bellamy remained cautious.
He was not opposed to modernization.
He knew the company could not survive forever by refusing change.
But he also remembered Samuel's warnings.
Whenever Arthur asked how the transaction would affect the protected licensing commitments, Graham's team assured him the necessary consent issues were being addressed.
The general counsel, Daniel Mercer, repeated those assurances.
Daniel was forty-nine, meticulous in appearance, and known for his ability to make complicated contracts sound manageable.
He had joined Northstar after Samuel's death.
His career depended heavily upon Graham's confidence.
He understood that the proposed transaction would generate enormous professional fees and could place him in a powerful position within the reorganized company.
But he also understood the founder protections were not a minor detail.
They could obstruct the transfer of certain assets.
So Daniel began searching for a way around them.
He reviewed archived corporate documents.
Old consent certificates.
Trust correspondence.
And records of the company's prior transactions.
Eventually, he proposed a supplemental agreement asserting that the required founder-related approvals had already been obtained or remained effective under prior authorizations.
The language was broad.
Ambiguous.
And heavily dependent upon assumptions about the continuing effect of old documents.
An outside lawyer reviewing the draft raised concerns.
The questions were sent to Daniel.
He assured the team that they would be resolved.
Then Graham imposed a deadline.
The transaction needed approval before the end of October.
The investors had grown impatient.
And a financing commitment was scheduled to expire.
Daniel instructed his team to prepare a final supplemental certificate.
During the document assembly process, an old signature specimen associated with Samuel Brooks was incorporated into the new consent package.
The execution date was updated to the current transaction date.
The certificate now appeared to show a personal authorization signed by Samuel after his death.
Whether that error resulted from recklessness, deliberate misrepresentation, or a combination of both would later become a central question in the investigation.
But Graham and Daniel had one immediate problem.
The document needed to reach the board.
Without someone examining the signature closely.
And without Arthur Bellamy remembering the specific promise he'd made to Samuel years earlier.
Naomi first entered Northstar's Manhattan headquarters on October 12, 2026.
She hadn't planned to work there.
Her staffing agency called that morning because a regular hospitality employee was ill, and the company needed someone with experience serving executives during confidential meetings.