Five Years Earlier
Ronan's POV
The board meeting ran forty minutes longer than scheduled, and I knew before it started that the extra time wasn't going toward quarterly projections.
"Before we adjourn," Harold Pierce said, closing his folder with the particular deliberateness of a man who'd been waiting for the right moment all afternoon, "I'd like to raise something outside the formal agenda."
"Go ahead, Harold."
"Several of us have noticed a pattern this year." He glanced around the table, gathering the quiet nods of two other board members before continuing.
"Canceled deals. Adjusted schedules. Significant capital committed to a private property renovation that nobody on this board has been briefed on. All of it, as far as we can tell, tracing back to the same personal matter."
