“They do.”
“Then say what you’re actually saying.”
Harold leaned forward.
“Kestrel solves everything.”
“Licensing revenue.”
“Software control.”
“New market.”
“I know.”
“No.”
“You know presentation.”
“I know books.”
He pulled a folder from briefcase.
Victoria stared.
“How did that get through security?”
“Because I'm still COO.”
He slid papers.
Sterling debt covenants.
Internal forecasts.
Liquidity exposure.
Some she had seen.
Some she had not.
Victoria's face tightened.
“Where did these assumptions come from?”
“Reality.”
“These aren't finance committee numbers.”
“They're mine.”
“You ran shadow forecast.”
“Because you refuse pessimism.”
“I demand evidence.”
“You demand evidence that agrees with your desired future.”
That hurt because part of it might be true.
Harold saw.
Continued.
“If Tokyo meeting occurs, Kestrel board expects revised valuation.”
“They’re backing away.”
Victoria said, “They confirmed yesterday.”
“Because they think you’ll arrive.”
She froze.
“What did you do?”
Harold looked toward window.
“The warning was never supposed to endanger you.”
“Answer.”
“It forces diversion.”
“You miss meeting.”
“Market interprets uncertainty.”
“Kestrel gets nervous.”
“Our board invokes emergency acquisition committee.”
Victoria's mind moved fast.
The committee could approve revised terms without CEO if operational emergency prevented attendance.
“Who chairs?”
Harold said nothing.
He did not need to.
He did.
Victoria whispered:
“You engineered an aircraft emergency to take control of the deal.”
“To save the deal.”
“By sabotaging my jet.”
“By creating a warning.”
“You put a counterfeit part in an engine fire system.”
“I was told it could not affect engine.”
“You were told.”
“Yes.”
“By whom?”
Harold looked away.
“Julian.”
“Who hired NorthStar?”
“Julian.”
“Who told Julian?”
Silence.
Victoria's hands gripped wheel rims.
“Who?”
Harold whispered:
“Me.”
There.
Clean.
She felt no triumph.
Only grief.
“You could have killed us.”
“No.”
“You don't know that.”
“I was assured—”
“You do not get to use that phrase.”
Her voice rose for first time.
“You do not get to gamble with people’s lives and hide behind assurances.”
Harold stood too.
“I saved this company while you were learning how to command a room from a wheelchair.”
The words landed.
Not because disability insulted her.
Because he had revealed something he had apparently carried for years.
Harold realized it too.
Too late.
Victoria became perfectly still.
“Say it again.”
“Victoria—”
“Say it.”
He looked away.
She whispered:
“You defended me because you believed I needed defending.”
“You supported me because you thought gratitude would become control.”
“That isn't true.”
“It is.”
Harold’s face hardened.
“You were thirty-one.”
“Your father had just stepped down.”
“Board would have destroyed you.”
“And you expected me to become your proxy.”
“I expected you to listen.”
“I did.”
“For three years.”
“And every time I disagreed, you decided I was reckless.”