Chapter 17 - The Full Tape
Dominic did not ask Ava to believe him again.
That was the first intelligent thing he had done in several hours.
He sat at the far end of Richard's office while the recording remained frozen on Owen Blake's screen.
The full tape changed Dominic's legal position, but it did not restore his moral authority.
Ava saw him understand that distinction slowly.
For twenty-six years, clearing his name had become fused with proving Richard evil.
The recording finally gave him what he wanted.
It also exposed how close his own language had come to enabling disaster.
Make sure he does not reach that meeting had been reckless even with the missing sentence restored.
Dominic had trusted Richard to interpret an aggressive instruction responsibly while already believing Richard was corrupt.
That contradiction could not be blamed on editing.
Ava told him so during the silence after playback.
Dominic did not argue.
He admitted anger had made him careless.
He admitted he believed Julian's plan threatened the company and therefore justified extraordinary intervention.
He admitted he had spent decades thinking Richard alone crossed the line because Richard went farther.
Ava understood the temptation.
Comparing yourself to someone worse is an efficient way to avoid examining what you did wrong.
She had done smaller versions of it herself.
Richard lied first.
Dominic hid more.
Adrian approached her under false pretenses.
Each fact could become an excuse if placed beside another person's greater offense.
Ava decided the only useful comparison was between a person's action and the standard they claimed to believe.
Richard leaned against the window with the satisfaction of a man who believed one sentence had finally balanced twenty-six years of accusation.
Adrian did not look at either of them.
He stared at the dark glass and listened to the city below begin its slow approach toward morning.
Ava stood beside Maya Chen.
Her mother's warning repeated in her mind.
Make him prove every truth he asks you to believe.
Dominic finally spoke.
"Thomas clipped that recording."
Ava looked at him.
"Why would Thomas make you sound guilty?"
"He would not."
"Then explain it."
Dominic rubbed his hands together once.
"Julian had an appointment with a federal investigator the next morning."
"We know that."
"What you do not know is that Richard and I had agreed to call an emergency partner meeting before Julian left."
Richard laughed softly.
"Agreed."
Dominic ignored him.
"I wanted Julian delayed because he did not have the complete contract files."
Ava stared at him.
"You wanted to stop him from going to the government."
"For one day."
"Why?"
"Because half the evidence he intended to bring implicated innocent employees who had signed documents they did not understand."
Richard shook his head.
"Still rewriting history."
Dominic turned toward him.
"You were billing Meridian through six companies controlled by your cousins."
"And you were moving corporate money into secret accounts."
"To document your theft."
"By committing your own."
Greene, who had followed them into the office and now looked as though he regretted every life choice that led to this night, lifted one hand.
"If either of you turns this into another argument, I will personally ask security to put both of you in separate closets."
Richard stared at him.
Greene stared back.
"Try me."
Ava almost smiled.
The moment passed when Detective Ruiz entered with an evidence technician.
She carried a sealed case.
"The microcassette from the Halston residence has been imaged."
Richard's attorney immediately stood.
"We object to any playback outside a formal investigative setting."
Ruiz looked at him.
"Then you may leave."
The attorney did not.
Ruiz placed a laptop on the conference table inside Richard's office.
"This is a working copy."
"The original remains sealed."
She looked around.
"Nobody records this playback."
Every phone went onto the table.
Richard hesitated.
Ruiz looked at him.
"Yours too."
He placed it down.
The tape began with static.
Then a clock chimed somewhere in the background.
Thomas Sinclair's voice appeared first.
"October twenty-third, 1999, west conference room."
Ava felt tears rise again at the sound of him.
Thomas had been recording secretly.
The voices became clearer.
Julian Cross spoke first.
"I am done waiting."
Dominic answered.
"You have one folder out of seven."
"I have enough."
Richard cut in.
"Enough to destroy the company."
Julian laughed.
"You already did that."
A chair scraped.
Thomas's voice said something too faint to understand.
Julian continued.
"Tomorrow at nine, I am meeting Claire Benton from the regional fraud office."
Richard swore.
Dominic's voice sharpened.
"Then move it to ten."
"No."
"Julian, listen to me."
"I have listened for six months."
"You keep telling me Richard is stealing."
"Richard keeps telling me you are stealing."
"The difference between you is that both of you think your reason makes it acceptable."
Ava looked at Dominic.
He did not move.
Adrian stared at the speaker.
He had never heard his biological father's voice before tonight, and now Julian sounded alive enough to walk through the door.
The tape continued.
Julian said,
"I am taking everything I have."
"If the government wants the rest, they can subpoena it."
Richard's voice turned smooth.
"And Leah?"
A long pause followed.
Adrian's head lifted.
Julian answered carefully.
"Leave her out of this."
"I asked a question."
"She has nothing to do with Meridian."
Dominic interrupted.
"Richard."
"What?"
"Leave her alone."
Richard laughed.
"Everybody suddenly has principles."
A door opened.
Julian's footsteps receded.
The door slammed.
Then came the fragment they had already heard.
Richard said,
"He is leaving the west office now."
Dominic answered,
"Make sure he does not reach that meeting."
Ava's chest tightened even though she knew more audio was coming.
Richard said,
"How?"
Dominic replied,
"Call him back."
"Call the board."
"Fake a legal emergency if you have to."
"Do whatever you have to do."
Then came the sentence missing from Thomas's shorter digital file.
"But nobody touches him."
The room went perfectly still.
Ava closed her eyes.
Dominic exhaled for what sounded like the first time in minutes.
Richard's expression changed by a fraction.
The tape continued.
Dominic said,
"I mean it, Richard."
"No intimidation."
"No security team."
"I want him delayed until Elena can bring the rest of the files."
Richard answered,
"Understood."
Dominic left the room.
His footsteps faded.
A door clicked shut.
For eight seconds, the tape carried only silence.
Then Richard spoke again.
"Thomas, are you still here?"
Thomas answered from farther away.
"I'm collecting the audit folders."
"Go home."
"I need to finish the reconciliation."
"Tomorrow."
Another pause.
Thomas said,
"Fine."
A second door closed.
The recording should have ended.
It did not.
Richard picked up a phone.
Buttons clicked.
A man answered.
"Voss."
Miles had named Caleb Voss as the security man who forced the archive truck off the road.
Ava felt every hair on her arms rise.
Richard's younger voice became low.
"Cross is leaving through the west garage."
Voss answered,
"You want him followed?"
"I want him stopped."
"Vale said no contact."
Richard laughed softly.
"Vale says many things."
"How far?"
A pause.
Richard answered,
"Make the car fail before the river road."
Adrian made a sound that was almost a gasp.
Victoria, standing near the doorway, covered her mouth.
The tape continued.
Voss asked,
"And the payment?"
"Use the reserve account."
"Dominic will see it."
Richard answered,
"Not if his authorization is already on the request."
A drawer opened on the recording.
There was a dull stamping sound.
Ava looked toward the evidence bag that held Dominic's old signature stamp.
Voss laughed.
"You're going to put this on Vale?"
Richard's answer came without hesitation.
"If Cross gets scared and turns around, nothing happens."
"If he does not, Vale wanted him stopped."
"Either way, I survive."
The audio ended.
Nobody moved.
The city beyond the windows was beginning to lighten.
Richard looked at the laptop.
Then he looked at Detective Ruiz.
His lawyer grabbed his arm.
"Do not say a word."
Richard smiled faintly.
"It proves nothing."
Ruiz's expression did not change.
"It proves enough for me to make several phone calls."
Richard's attorney stood in front of him.
"My client will not answer further questions."
"That is his right."
Ruiz closed the laptop.
"He should use it."
Adrian walked toward Richard.
Ava thought he might hit him.
He did not.
He stopped inches away.
"You killed my father."
Richard's expression hardened.
"You do not know that."
"You ordered someone to damage his car."
"To stop him."
"His car went off a bridge."
"I did not tell Voss to kill him."
Adrian laughed in disbelief.
"You still think the wording saves you."
Richard leaned closer.
"The world runs on wording."
Adrian stared at him for several seconds.
Then he stepped back.
"Not mine anymore."
Richard's face changed.
Adrian looked toward Greene.
"Effective immediately, I renounce any personal claim to shares granted to me solely as Richard Halston's son until ownership is independently reviewed."
Richard's jaw tightened.
"Do not be stupid."
Adrian ignored him.
"If the Cross trust is valid, I want independent counsel."
"If it isn't, I walk away with whatever is actually mine and nothing else."
Greene nodded slowly.
"That is sensible."
Richard snapped.
"It is suicidal."
Adrian looked at him.
"For your empire, maybe."
Ava felt something shift inside her.
Adrian was not asking her to forgive him.
He was dismantling the advantage created by the lie even though it cost him millions.
That mattered.
It did not erase the beginning of their relationship.
It mattered anyway.
Dominic stood.
"Ava."
She turned.
He looked older than he had in the ballroom.
"I should have told you about Thomas."
"Yes."
"I should have told Adrian what I knew when he was thirteen."
Adrian looked toward him.
Dominic did not hide.
"Yes."
Ava waited.
"I kept telling myself timing was strategy."
"It was fear."
Ava looked at him.
"And control."
Dominic nodded.
"And control."
She had never heard him admit the word.
"What happens now?"
He glanced toward the evidence laptop.
"Richard is investigated."
"Voss is found."
"The money is traced."
"The company is restored."
Ava shook her head.
"No."
Dominic frowned.
"No what?"
"You do not get the company back."
The room went silent again.
Dominic stared at her.
"Ava."
"You heard me."
"Meridian was ours."
"It belonged to employees, Julian, you, and other shareholders."
"Richard stole control."
"And you spent twenty-six years believing that gave you the right to decide what came after."
Dominic's face tightened.
"I built the recovery."
"With secrets."
"I protected you."
"With secrets."
"I risked my life."
"With secrets."
Ava stepped closer.
"Mom did not leave that drive so one controlling man could replace another."
Dominic looked wounded.
She kept going.
"The employee trust gets restored if the law supports it."
"Adrian's Cross claim gets independent review."
"Your original lawful interest gets independent review."
"And anything obtained through secret transfers, forged documents, or manipulation gets unwound."
Dominic stared at her.
"You sound like Thomas."
Ava's throat tightened.
"Good."
Greene almost smiled.
Richard watched the exchange with narrowed eyes.
He seemed to understand something no one else had noticed yet.
If Ava refused Dominic's empire as firmly as she refused Richard's, his easiest defense was disappearing.
The villains in his story needed to be greedy.
Ava was making greed harder to prove.
Ruiz's phone rang.
She answered.
"Ruiz."
She listened.
"Where?"
Her face changed.
"Do not approach alone."
Ava felt tension return instantly.
Ruiz ended the call.
"Patrol located Caleb Voss's vehicle."
Adrian stepped forward.
"Where?"
"Airport parking."
Richard's attorney closed his eyes.
Ruiz continued.
"The car is empty."
"But Voss used his passport at a private aviation terminal thirty minutes ago."
Dominic swore.
"Is he leaving?"
"A charter filed for Montreal."
Ava looked at Adrian.
Montreal was where Leah had been living as Sarah Cole for years.
Ruiz saw the connection too.
"Why would Voss go to Montreal now?"
Miles answered from the office doorway.
Nobody had seen him arrive.
His bandaged arm hung in a sling.
His face was pale.
"Because Richard kept one person on Leah after everyone else thought she was dead."
Richard's expression changed.
Miles looked directly at him.
May you like
"And Voss knows exactly where she lives."
