The board meeting was scheduled for nine the following morning, but it was effectively decided before anyone sat down.
Richard Hale’s statement had hit the prosecutor’s office at eleven the previous night. Gerald’s lawyer had called Marcus Cole at midnight. By seven in the morning, three of Gerald’s five board coalition members had quietly withdrawn their support, the way people in powerful rooms always do when they realize a ship is going down and there are limited lifeboats.
Nathaniel walked into that boardroom in the same grey suit he had worn to the settlement meeting, Claire’s hands having straightened his collar again in the elevator with the same calm, automatic grace.
She did not go inside with him. This part was his.
She waited in the corridor on a bench that was slightly too
