The Heiress Returned from the Dead

Chapter 6: Testing Rights, Not Sale Rights

Vera came to Helena’s office without Nathan. Erin had laid the return lists beside the copy of the condition sheet found in Reed’s development memo. The outgoing inventory named three research journals. The return record listed only equipment files and calibration copies.

“Did you compare the lists before you signed?” Erin asked.

“No.” Vera kept her eyes on the page. “I thought the inventory was complete.”

“You signed anyway.”

“I did.”

Erin tapped the second page. “This is what you signed. It gave Reed permission to test the material. It did not give Reed permission to sell my mother’s journals or claim her results as its own.”

Vera leaned closer. Her initials sat beside the testing clause. “I read that as an internal evaluation.”

“Then why is the sheet in a commercial comparison?”

“I didn’t put it there.”

“Who did?”

Vera opened Daniel Cho’s memo. One table used the rust-marked condition sheet as a design reference. It did not copy Elise’s result into a product claim, but the source had never been cleared for that use.

Daniel joined by video. He said the scan came from Reed’s external-review folder. He had assumed anything in the development workspace was cleared. He had used the test conditions to compare designs, then sent a folder link to an outside technical group after someone asked for the original.

“Did you check who owned it?” Erin asked.

“No. I should have.”

“Did anyone tell you it was company property?”

“No.”

The answer did not excuse him. It narrowed what he could testify to.

Erin asked whether the outside group had received the signed page with the scan. Daniel said he could not remember. Vera opened the folder history and found nine days of downloads after she had signed the return record. The activity did not show who had opened each file, but it showed the account had remained live.

“You told me you returned it,” Erin said.

“I believed I had.”

“You signed the list without counting the pages.”

“Yes.” Vera did not try to improve the answer. “I should have checked the journals against the return inventory.”

Helena asked Vera to preserve the access log, and Daniel to produce the outside request. Vera sent the hold notice before the meeting ended.

Helena asked Vera to preserve the entire access log and Daniel to produce the outside request. Vera sent the hold notice before the meeting ended. Erin watched her attach the signed page, including the clause that limited what Reed could do.

Helena checked the clause. “It permits testing within Reed. There is no transfer or publication right.” Erin nodded. Daniel had still used the conditions in a commercial comparison, and the missing pages still had not come back.

Erin asked whether Reed could report the results outside the company. “Not under this clause,” Helena said. The second page allowed testing; it did not grant a sales or publication license.

“Are you asking me to trust you?” Erin said.

“No. I’m giving you the record.”

It was the first answer Vera had given that Erin could use without accepting her version of the past. The missing journal pages remained unexplained.

Vera had preserved the folder log. The return record had closed her task, not the account.

Erin watched Vera read the dates. “You thought the materials were back.”

“I did.”

“But the access stayed live.”

“Yes.” Vera attached the log to the record herself. “I’ll give Helena the full chain. I won’t ask you to take my word for it.”

Erin wanted an apology that would explain why she had spent years believing no one had heard her. Vera did not offer one. The signed page could establish the limit of permission; it could not tell them who had kept the folder open or why the missing journal pages were never returned.

They left the meeting with two requests: the original scan and the outside download list. Daniel would provide the email that asked for it. Vera would preserve the account record. Erin did not agree to call the matter a mistake. She also did not call Vera a thief.

That afternoon, Priya brought her the latest evaluation sheet. The preferred material had passed its screen. Erin checked the failure column before looking at the headline number. Nothing had been removed from the report.

Then she reached the source note. The rust-marked condition had been filed under “independently developed.”

Erin asked whether the outside team received that same limitation. Daniel said the folder did not show it. Helena requested the full email chain before they described the use as authorized.

Erin turned the page toward Helena. “That’s the same mark.”

Vera did not answer at once. She turned the page so the signature faced her. “I signed because Reed had paid for the evaluation and the team was waiting on a decision. I thought I was keeping the work alive.”

“You were keeping your schedule alive,” Erin said. “My mother’s name is the one that made the comparison valuable.”

Vera’s fingers stopped on the paper. For once, she did not reach for the usual explanation about what the company had invested. “I knew the customer wanted a result they could use. I wanted to give them one. I didn’t ask whether the source was cleared.”

That was not the same as admitting she had sent the file. Erin wrote the distinction in the margin for Helena. Vera watched the pen move. “You think I did it on purpose.”

“I think you signed without checking, then let the account stay open. I’m not deciding what you meant until we know who downloaded the page.”

Vera looked toward the video window, where Daniel had gone silent. “He thought the folder was ours.”

“And you thought your signature made it safe.”

No one corrected her. The folder history was still incomplete. A download showed an account, not the person at the keyboard; the outside request could establish who had asked for the material, not whether Vera had approved the answer. Erin had learned what happened when people filled gaps with certainty. She was not going to do it for Vera, even now.

At the end of the meeting, Helena asked Erin whether she wanted a formal statement from Vera that day. Erin looked at the signed page again. “Not until we have the outside request and the original scan. I want the record to say what we know, not what would make this easier.”

Vera nodded once. The answer seemed to disappoint her, though Erin could not tell whether she had wanted forgiveness or a chance to defend herself. Erin closed the folder. The two questions remained separate: what the signature permitted, and who had turned that limited permission into a sales claim.

In the hall, Alexander was waiting at the far end beside Helena’s assistant. He did not come toward Erin. He had texted first to ask if she wanted company after the meeting; she had said she would decide when she came out.

“Do you want me here?” he asked.

“For a minute.”

He fell into step beside her, leaving enough space that their sleeves did not touch. “I wanted to go in and tell her what that page did to you.”

“I know.”

“I didn’t.”

Erin looked at him. “You asked.”

“I did.” He waited, not reaching for the folder. “I’m trying to make that the first step, not something I remember after I’ve already made the choice.”

She could still feel the office meeting in her jaw. “Keep doing it when the answer is no.”

“I will.”

She handed him the folder while she adjusted the strap of her bag, then took it back before he could carry it. He let her. That small pause mattered more than a promise tonight.

The afternoon evaluation was still on the calendar. Erin went downstairs with the signed page in her bag and the unanswered question in her notes. If the outside group had the original, there would be a distribution trail. If they had only the cropped scan, someone had chosen which part of Elise’s work they were allowed to see.

Helena read the line twice. “Then we ask who filed it.”

Erin called Vera. “Open the brochure. Page two says testing rights. Who decided that meant the journal could be sold?”