Victoria picked up her phone. She called her attorney back. She said, "Add patent fraud to the list. I'm sending you the filing number now." She hung up. She looked at Daniel.
This changes the legal exposure significantly. I know. For Richard and potentially for Marsh. I know. Are you going to pursue personal claims separate from the company's position?
Daniel looked at her. That depends on what the company's position is. Victoria held his gaze. The company's position, she said carefully and deliberately, is that the intellectual property in question was developed by you, that the attribution of that IP to another individual was fraudulent, and that the company intends to support the correction of that record fully and without reservation. She paused.
That is the company's position as of right now, and it is my position, and I will defend it in front of the board tomorrow morning. Daniel looked at her for a long moment. He said, "There's something you should know about the board meeting tomorrow." She waited. Richard's attorney sent a letter to the board this evening, he said. Victoria's expression didn't change.
How do you know that? Because Clare Nakamura told Patterson when she came back downstairs at 7 to drop off the printed contract. Patterson told me. He paused. Your team is loyal to you.
I thought you should know that. Something moved in Victoria's face. She nodded slowly. Richard is trying to make today about your leadership. Daniel said he's going to frame it as a CEO who panicked and threw a senior director under the bus to protect herself from a failed demonstration.
I know that narrative works if today is about the demonstration failing. Daniel said it doesn't work if today is about a patent fraud filing and a six modification unauthorized edit history and a deliberate scheme to erase a colleague's work that has been documented in emails going back four years. Victoria looked at him. You're telling me how to handle the board. I'm telling you what I'd do if I were you, Daniel said, which I recognize is not the same thing as telling you what to do.
Victoria was quiet for a moment and then she said something that Daniel did not expect. Would you come, she said, to the board meeting tomorrow morning? He didn't answer right away. Not to testify, she said. Not to perform anything, just to be in the room because the board is going to hear Richard's version of today and they're going to hear mine and I think it matters for them to see the man those versions are actually about.