You have a complete bulletproof alternative record that shows the truth. Voss walks in with his weapon and you dismantle it before he finishes the first sentence. Victoria looked at him for a long moment. And Nathan Cross, James asked. Nathan Cross walks into his Tuesday meeting with Voss and delivers a shadow record that your own lawyers have already completely discredited with certified documentation.
Darius paused. At that point, he's not just a disloyal employee. He's a party to a coordinated attempt to defraud the board of a public company. That's a criminal exposure, not just an employment matter. The room was very quiet.
Then Victoria said, "You thought about this all night? I thought about it since Wednesday morning when his name came up. You waited to tell me until you were certain. I wasn't going to hand you a name unless I could hand you a complete picture with it. Victoria Hayes looked at Darius Coleman.
This man she had taken the most impulsive and calculated risk of her life on 3 weeks ago and something happened in her expression that she did not try to stop. It was not gratitude exactly. It was something closer to recognition. The look of a person who has spent years being surrounded by competence and loyalty of a professional variety and has just encountered something they had stopped believing was real. Someone who was simply completely on her side.
Okay. She said, "We do it your way. I'll need to work with your outside forensic accounting contact. " Quietly. Nothing through internal channels. James will set it up today.
She looked at her general counsel offbook. Personal referral only. James nodded and stood to leave. At the door, he paused and it looked back at Darius with the expression of a man who had seen a great many things in a great many boardrooms and was recalibrating something. Sir Coleman, he said, "How long have you been doing this kind of forensic work? " "I've been reading financial systems my whole career," Darius said.
"I just spent most of it fixing other people's problems quietly. " James smiled just briefly and left. Victoria and Darius were alone. She sat down for the first time since he'd known her. She sat the way a person sits when they're exhausted, not arranged, not composed, just sitting. Wait, surrendered to the chair.
I owe you an apology, she said. For what specifically? For not telling you everything Tuesday night. She looked at her hands. I told myself it was strategic.
I told myself I was protecting the company by staging the information carefully. A pause. But the truth is I was afraid that if I showed you the full scope of it, you'd see how bad it actually was and walk away. Darius was quiet for a moment. And now, and now you've seen the full scope and you're still here.