It was a full easy laugh. Genuinely amused. They'll get vouchers, he said. Relocation assistance, standard package. A pause.
What do they expect? A gold watch. The CFO laughed. The commissioner made a sound that wasn't quite a laugh, but wasn't a protest either. The call continued for another eight minutes covering financing structure and commission vote timing.
Then it ended. The hotel suite was very quiet. Kimberly had her laptop open, but she wasn't typing. She was staring at the speaker Elena had placed in the center of the coffee table as though the voice might still be in it somewhere. Mattie sat forward with his elbows on his knees, jaw tight, looking at the floor.
Olivia on the video screen was already writing notes. "I want to publish this today," Kimberly said. Her voice was controlled, but there was something burning underneath it. "Tomorrow at the latest. People need to "Not yet," Elena said.
Kimberly looked at her. "If we release this before we have the commissioners on record, Brad's lawyers challenge the chain of custody. Burn the evidence trail and the officials walk clean. " Elena kept her voice even. We need the attorney general's office to receive this through proper channels first. We need at least two commissioners facing enough pressure that cooperation looks better than obstruction.
She looked at Olivia on the screen. How long do you need? 72 hours. Olivia said, "I have a contact at the AG's office. If I can get this to her with the full Shell Company documentation as supporting evidence, she can open a preliminary inquiry.
Kimberly closed her laptop slowly. She looked at Elena for a long moment. 72 hours, she said. Not one minute more. Elena nodded.
The room exhaled. For the first time since the boardroom, something close to relief moved through Elena's chest. Not victory. She was too careful for that. But the walls were closing in on Braden Harrington III.
And for the first time, she could hear it. She looked at Mattie. He looked back at her and said nothing. He didn't need to. For 48 hours, everything moved in the right direction.
Elena's litigation team filed a counter motion against Brad's asset freeze injunction on Thursday morning. By afternoon, the presiding judge had reviewed it and denied Brad's motion. The filing was too thin, the legal basis too weak, the whole thing too obviously tactical to survive scrutiny. Brad's lawyers had thrown sand and the wind had blown it back. Olivia's AG contact responded within 24 hours of receiving the preliminary evidence package.