Move Hart out before the vendor migration. She asks too many questions and will connect Meridian.
Rebecca lowered the page.
“Grant.”
He raised both hands.
“That could mean anything.”
“It means exactly what it says,” I replied.
He stared at me.
“You were investigating me?”
“No.”
I closed the folder.
“I was doing my job.”
By noon, Grant’s access to financial systems had been suspended.
By 12:30, the board postponed every restructuring decision he had made that quarter.
By one, outside forensic accountants had been hired.
Grant disappeared into Rebecca’s office.
The walls were glass, but the door was shut.
Nobody could hear the argument.
Nobody needed to.
At 2:15, Rebecca walked out alone.
Her eyes were red.
Grant followed ten minutes later carrying a leather briefcase.
He found me near the elevators.
“Evelyn.”
I kept walking.
He stepped in front of me.
“We need to talk.”
“We’ve talked plenty today.”
His voice dropped.
“You know what this looks like.”
“I do.”
“I can explain the vendor relationships.”
“You should explain them to the investigators.”
He glanced toward the boardroom.
“They’re going to ruin me.”
I studied him.
This morning, he had stood in my office while strangers packed twenty-one years of my life into a box.
Now he wanted mercy because consequences had found his address.
“I didn’t know you were a Holloway,” he said.
That sentence stopped me.
I looked at him for several seconds.
Then I said, “That is the worst possible defense you could offer.”
His brow tightened.
“What?”
“If you had known my grandfather’s name, you would have treated me with respect.”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“Yes, it is.”
I stepped closer.
“You thought I was just an employee. That’s why you believed you could humiliate me.”
His jaw hardened.
“I was making a business decision.”
“No. You were making a character decision.”
He said nothing.
“You didn’t fail because you fired the founder’s granddaughter, Grant.”
I nodded toward the offices behind us.
“You failed because you believed everyone without a powerful last name was disposable.”
The elevator doors opened.
This time, I stepped inside alone.
The investigation lasted seven weeks.
The findings were worse than I expected.
Two vendors had overcharged Holloway by nearly $3.8 million.
Another had billed for software services never fully delivered.
Meridian North Holdings had indirect financial interests in all three.
