She looked at me. I am not certain at all. Then why do it? Because certainty had become everyone else's excuse for deciding for me because it still has to be my choice. For the first time since Penwell Avenue, I was facing the possibility that I could lose everything and no one would step in to prevent it.
I was terrified, but the fear belonged to me. So did the decision. The conference room on the top floor of Aurelus felt colder than I remembered. Maybe it was the glass walls. Maybe the gray October light pressing against the windows.
Or maybe it was the fact that I had spent the previous nights imagining every possible way the morning could end. Nadia and I arrived early. Ronin was already there with Helixor's attorneys and two financial adviserss. He looked rested. I hated him a little for that.
The board chair opened the special review exactly on time. The agenda was narrow. Examine the validity of my suspension, consider the independent findings, determine whether I should be reinstated as chief executive, and address any related governance action. Ronin's council went first. They did not deny that certain figures had been edited.
Instead, they argued that document handling during an internal review was normal, that no evidence proved Ronin personally altered anything, and that the larger question was whether my leadership had become too concentrated and too emotionally tied to a rel. It was a smarter argument than pretending nothing was wrong. One attorney displayed charts showing how much capital I had committed to research and how long some programs had gone without meaningful revenue. Then Ronan spoke. I helped build this company too.
I am not asking anyone to forget what Genevieve has done. I am asking whether admiration for a founder can become a substitute for governance. He said Aurelis had reached a scale where no single person should be indispensable and that my resistance to Helixor had cost shareholders a historic opportunity. Part of me wanted to interrupt and tell everyone exactly what he had done. Nadia had warned me not to, so I sat still and listened while Ronan turned my decade of commitment into evidence that I could no longer separate myself from the company.
When he finished, one director asked whether he believed I had intentionally concealed financial risk. Ronin chose his words carefully. I believe the reporting process under Genevieve became too dependent on her judgment. Whether the resulting omissions were intentional is for the evidence to establish. He had found a way to accuse me without fully owning the accusation.
Then Nadia stood. She began with the warranty issue. The archived finance packet showed that the liability Ronan's report described as hidden had been disclosed months earlier in a meeting he personally attended. The original figures distribution list and meeting notes all matched. Helixor's council argued that one disclosed item did not invalidate the broader concerns.
Nadia agreed. That surprised them. Then she moved to the metadata. She showed how multiple cells in the compliance workbooks had been modified after the original review period. The changes were small in isolation but consistent in direction.
Revenue appeared earlier. Liability recognition appeared later. Risk disclosures disappeared from summaries that had originally included them. Together, the edits created a picture of misconduct. The earlier documents did not support.