Chapter 12 - THE PRICE OF BEING IMPORTANT
Grant spent the next two days trying to recover his former life by making appointments nobody would grant.
He called colleagues who used to flatter him, brokers who had wanted his business, and donors who had praised him at dinners.
His invitations went unanswered.
His lawyer warned him that rage was becoming the most damaging witness against him.
"Then make them stop talking," Grant said.
"I am your lawyer, not your magician."
For the first time, someone in his orbit refused to pretend control was possible.
Eliza was in a very different room, reviewing a budget with a financial counselor.
Her own earnings had stopped years ago, and she wanted to understand the legal process for support without building her future on Wade's checks.
"I used to manage national product launches," she said.
"Then you still know how to build a plan," the counselor replied.
Eliza reached out to a former colleague and asked whether occasional consulting work might be possible after the baby arrived.
Her colleague replied within an hour.
Of course.
She stared at those two words longer than she had stared at the entire trust agreement.
Owen found her smiling and demanded another train story.
She told him about an engine that lost its way in a storm and learned to follow the tracks it could see.
"Does it get home?" he asked.
"It finds a new one."
At the corporate office, the special committee debated how much of its investigation to disclose publicly.
Peter argued for accurate, careful disclosure rather than a flattering fiction that everything had worked perfectly.
Mitchell acknowledged that his failure to examine Grant's changing valuation assumptions had helped create the problem.
He offered to accept whatever corrective measures the board thought proper.
Wade watched through a remote connection and said little.
The old version of him might have insisted that a loyal executive be spared embarrassment.
The new version knew that loyalty without accountability had helped Grant flourish.
Then Naomi obtained the full transaction ledger for Calder Advisory Services.
It showed substantial outgoing payments to a vendor with no obvious connection to investments.
The vendor provided surveillance and private-investigation services.
Eliza recognized the company name from a bill Grant had once explained as market research.
The first invoices were dated before their wedding.
He had been collecting information on Wade long before he proposed to her.
May you like
And the earliest report was labeled HARRYOW HOLDINGS — DAUGHTER ACCESS STRATEGY.
