Chapter 11 - The Deal Inside the Deal.
Samuel turned his laptop so Emma and Rachel could see the transaction record.
Harbor Systems had sold an exclusive ten-year license covering the reservation platform used across Reed Capital's hotel portfolio.
The purchase price was surprisingly low.
The consequences were not.
Rachel read the agreement twice.
“If this holds, Aster Lane can charge the operating companies for continued use.”
Samuel nodded.
“And replacing the system would take months.”
Emma stared at Ethan's electronic approval on the screen.
This signature appeared legitimate.
Unlike the trust amendment, he had authority to approve certain subsidiary licensing transactions below a threshold.
He had used a real power instead of pretending to have one.
That made the move harder to unwind.
“What was the sale price?”
Samuel told her.
Emma almost laughed.
“That is less than one year of licensing revenue.”
“Correct.”
“So he sold a strategic asset to his mother's company for a fraction of its value.”
“On the face of it.”
Rachel raised a hand.
“We still need the full file before we use words like that in a formal setting.”
Emma nodded.
Precision first.
Emotion later.
Her phone buzzed with a message from Ethan.
YOU SHOULD HAVE LET ME EXPLAIN.
A second message followed.
YOUR FATHER BUILT A CAGE AND CALLED IT PROTECTION.
Emma read both without answering.
The sentence about her father revealed more than Ethan intended.
He had seen the trust safeguards before tonight.
He understood them well enough to resent them.
Rachel asked for screenshots.
Emma forwarded the messages.
Samuel searched the transaction file for attachments.
“There is an outside valuation.”
“Who prepared it?”
“Vale Advisory Group.”
Emma looked up.
“Lauren's firm?”
Samuel nodded.
Rachel's expression hardened.
“Call her attorney.”
Lauren joined by secure video ten minutes later with a lawyer seated beside her.
Her champagne dress had been replaced by a gray sweater, and her hair was pulled back carelessly.
She looked younger and more frightened than she had in the foyer.
Emma held up the valuation cover page.
“Did your firm prepare this?”
Lauren stared at it.
“No.”
“Your logo is on it.”
“I can see that.”
Her attorney asked for a copy.
Rachel sent it.
Lauren scrolled through the pages and stopped.
“That signature isn't mine.”
Emma felt tired of hearing that sentence from different people.
“Is the analysis yours?”
Lauren read more quickly.
“No.”
Then she stopped again.
“Wait.”
“What?”
“Part of the market section is mine.”
Emma frowned.
“How can part of it be yours?”
Lauren looked miserable.
“I wrote a preliminary Northstar technology review for Ethan two months ago.”
“He told me it was for internal planning.”
“Did you value Harbor Systems?”
“No.”
“I valued an old software unit owned by Northstar.”
Samuel leaned closer.
“Could someone have changed the company name and numbers?”
“Easily, if they had the source file.”
Caleb's earlier confession about the cloned laptop returned to Emma immediately.
The forged valuation had not been created from nothing.
It had been built from real work, making it look plausible.
Rachel asked Lauren to compare the document metadata with her own files.
Lauren did.
Her expression shifted from confusion to disbelief.
“The author field says EVale.”
“Is that you?”
“No.”
“My login is LVale.”
Emma looked at Rachel.
“Who is EVale?”
Lauren's eyes widened.
“Nobody at my firm.”
Her attorney asked whether the name could be arbitrary.
Lauren shook her head.
“Our document system automatically uses employee credentials.”
Samuel searched company vendor records for the same identifier.
Nothing appeared.
Then Rachel asked a different question.
“Lauren, does Ethan know anyone else with your last name?”
Lauren went still.
Emma noticed instantly.
“Who?”
Lauren looked away from the camera.
“My father.”
The room quieted.
“His name is Edward Vale.”
Emma felt another door opening behind the first mystery.
“What does your father do?”
Lauren seemed reluctant to answer.
“He used to work in hotel technology.”
Samuel stopped typing.
“Where?”
Lauren closed her eyes.
“Harbor Systems.”
Emma stared at her.
“When?”
“Before Reed Capital bought it.”
“How long ago?”
“Almost twelve years.”
Emma thought of her father's sealed letter.
Northstar.
Margaret.
The old failed deal.
And now Lauren's father, tied to the very technology Ethan had sold that morning.
Rachel asked the question everyone was avoiding.
“Did your father know Margaret Bennett?”
Lauren looked directly into the camera.
“Yes.”
“He was the person who introduced her to Northstar.”
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THE DOOR HE SHOULD NOT HAVE OPENED
