I looked through the peephole and saw Ronan standing alone in the hallway.
I opened the door but kept the chain attached.
“How did you find me?”
“Serafina’s people found you first.”
That was not comforting.
Ronan raised both hands.
“I am not working for her anymore.”
Alera appeared behind me holding a slice of pizza.
“Is that the giant from the video?”
Ronan looked embarrassed.
“Probably.”
I let him in.
He placed the briefcase on our small kitchen table and removed the Meridian report.
The original cover page carried my signature, the date, and the serial numbers of the defective battery modules.
Behind it were printed emails, security logs, and photographs taken before the equipment disappeared.
“Why did you keep this?” I asked.
“Because the official story was a lie.”
“You had six years to say that.”
His eyes dropped.
“I had a mortgage, a sick father, and a contract that threatened everything I owned.
I told myself the report would surface without me.
Then I told myself speaking would not change anything.”
“And today?”
“Today I watched her hit you because she thought nobody important was watching.”
Alera sat quietly across from him.
Ronan looked at her, then back at me.
“I realized silence had made me part of it.”
He pushed the report toward me.
Before I could answer, my phone rang.
This time the caller identified herself as Evelyn Shaw.
I almost ignored it.
Ronan said, “Answer.”
Evelyn did not waste words.
The board had called an emergency meeting for nine the next morning.
Serafina had described the Starbucks incident as a staged extortion attempt.
Her legal team was preparing to accuse me publicly of targeting her because I was a disgruntled former employee.
Evelyn had seen the video and learned about the fire report from Ronan.
“We need your testimony,” she said.
“I testified six years ago.”
“Not to the board.”
“The board signed my termination.”
There was a pause.
“You are correct,” she said.
“And that is one of several things we may need to answer for.”
I looked at the frozen pizza, the peeling cabinet paint, and Alera’s paper turkey taped crookedly to the refrigerator.
“I’m not interested in becoming your public-relations solution.”
“Then come as the problem we failed to solve.”
The next morning, Ronan and I entered Valent’s headquarters through a lobby made of marble, glass, and money.
Six years earlier, security had escorted me out through the loading dock.
This time, cameras waited outside the front entrance.
I wore my old Target jacket.
Serafina was already in the boardroom.
She sat at the head of the table with three lawyers behind her and a printed statement in front of her.
Her eyes moved to my scar and then quickly away.
“This is absurd,” she said.
