He did not resist. Take this, he told Camille. Nathan reached for the tablet, but Dr. Torres pulled it against her chest. This is my firm's property. Then your firm will be named in the complaint.
Camille stepped between them. Name me first. Nathan smiled. That can be arranged. By midnight, Julian sat in a police interview room while Gordon's attorneys framed the discovery as sabotage.
Camille arrived with counsel, signed a statement confirming she had authorized the inspection, and accepted full responsibility for entering the corridor. Gordon called again, offering one final bargain, withdraw the allegations, end her relationship with Julian, and he would make the charges disappear. Camille looked through the glass at Julian sitting alone beneath a fluorescent light. "No," she said. "Tomorrow morning, I am calling an emergency board session.
You will lose your seat. Then I will lose it telling the truth." She ended the call and entered the room. Julian stood. You should not be here.
You said powerful men punish whoever we cannot afford to lose. Camille took his hand. He made one mistake. What he assumed. I could afford to lose you.
Outside, thunder rolled over the city as Denise delivered the original files to a secure attorney's office and Dr. Torres completed her preliminary report. By sunrise, every member of the Meridian board had received Camille's demand for an emergency meeting. Gordon Pike had 6 hours to destroy Julian's credibility. Camille, Julian, and Denise had 6 hours to prove that the most dangerous lie in Meridian Tower was not the one Gordon had just created, but the one buried beneath its south wing for 5 years. At 8:30, Julian stood outside the Meridian boardroom wearing the only dark suit he owned, the same one he had worn to Rachel's funeral 6 years earlier.
He had tied the knot three times and still could not make it sit straight. Sophie had called before school, her face filling his phone screen cartoon planets printed across her pajamas. "You know more about buildings than anyone," she said. "Do not let the mean man talk louder than the truth." Julian smiled, but after the call ended, his hands began shaking.
Camille found him staring at the closed doors. Without asking, she straightened his tie, then rested her hand against his chest for one brief second. Whatever happens in there, she said, you are not walking in alone. Across the hall, Gordon watched them through the glass and understood that intimidation had failed. He turned to Nathan.
Destroy him before the inspectors speak. The boardroom filled quickly. 12 directors took their seats around the long walnut table. Denise sat at the far end with a locked case beside her chair. Dr. Lena Torres waited near the screen holding the preliminary scan report.
Gordon entered last, calm and immaculate, carrying a folder thick enough to look authoritative. He opened the meeting before Camille could speak. We are here because Ms. Hart has allowed a personal relationship with a disgruntled contractor to become a corporate crisis. Photographs appeared on the screen. Camille touching Julian's hand beside his truck.
Julian entering the restricted foundation corridor. Denise carrying files from the archive. Gordon presented each image slowly, giving suspicion time to settle. "Mr. Price lost his engineering position 5 years ago," he continued. "He has spent years nursing a grievance, gaining access to this property, and waiting for leverage."