Chapter 7 - THE ARCHIVE DRIVE
Derek did not open the door.
He called the building desk and asked for assistance, then photographed the envelope on his kitchen counter.
Outside, Grant's mother insisted she was there to protect him from the Harrows.
"You are not part of this," Derek said through the door.
"Everyone is part of it now," she replied.
Her footsteps retreated only when the building attendant appeared.
Derek delivered the drive to counsel that morning.
An integrity check found the original valuation model, correspondence, and edits attributed to several accounts.
The file suggested that projected transport costs had been removed from a proposed Mercer Precision acquisition, making the target appear more profitable.
It did not yet establish who directed every change.
Peter Lang immediately recognized a formula he had objected to months before.
His objection, however, was missing from the board packet.
"I wrote a memo," he said.
The investigator asked where it was.
"I sent it to Grant and Mitchell."
Mitchell found his copy in an old archive.
Its subject line was MERCER - MATERIAL ASSUMPTIONS.
Beside it sat another email, sent by Grant's assistant using instructions from Grant, requesting that the committee packet be replaced.
Mitchell stared at the screen.
For the first time he had to confront his own failure: he had trusted Grant's confident presentation more than Peter's documented concern.
At the rental house, Eliza was trying to make toast when a courier delivered a notice from Grant's lawyer.
He wanted exclusive possession of the marital residence and temporary primary custody of Owen.
The papers characterized Eliza as unstable because she had left the home after a family argument.
Eliza read the words without crying.
"He knows how frightened Owen was," she said.
Her attorney explained that allegations were not findings and that she could respond through the court.
Eliza collected her medical records, texts, witness contacts, and photographs.
She made a private timeline dating back to the first time Grant locked her out of the bank account.
The timeline grew longer than she expected.
At the bottom she wrote a sentence only for herself.
I am not going back to ask permission to exist.
Just before sunset, Naomi called.
"There is something on the archive drive you need to see," she said.
"Is it about the money?"
"No. It is a recording."
Eliza gripped the countertop.
"Of what?"
May you like
"Of a meeting in which Grant discussed what he would do if you ever tried to leave."
