Celeste’s posture changed.
“My trust documents were never provided to Whitaker Capital,” I said.
Sienna swallowed.
“He photographed them at home.”
I remembered Graham entering my study two months earlier while I was on the phone with my mother.
He said he needed a charger.
I had thought nothing of it.
“What else?” Nora asked.
Sienna rubbed her hands together.
“A valuation of the penthouse.”
The room seemed to tilt, though I remained still.
The penthouse had never belonged to Graham.
I purchased it before our marriage through a separate property trust.
He had no legal claim to it and no authority to pledge it.
“He told the lender Evelyn planned to contribute the residence as additional security,” Sienna continued.
Celeste closed her eyes briefly.
“That representation would be bank fraud if submitted as part of a financing application.”
Graham laughed, but there was no confidence left in it.
“You are taking the word of an employee trying to save herself.”
Sienna opened her clutch and removed a small phone.
“No,” she said.
“They can take yours.”
She placed it on the table.
It was not her everyday phone.
It was a second device, the kind people bought when they wanted one part of their life to remain invisible.
“He gave me this,” she said.
“Northlight is still logged in.”
Nora did not touch it.
She called the company’s outside forensic team and instructed them to preserve the device properly.
Security brought an evidence bag.
Sienna powered down the phone in front of witnesses and sealed it inside.
Graham watched the bag as if it contained a weapon.
In a way, it did.
The independent directors returned forty minutes later.
Martin read the resolution aloud.
Effective immediately, Graham’s voting rights were suspended under the founder agreement.
He was placed on administrative leave as chief executive pending an external investigation.
Nora was appointed interim chief executive.
All pending financing discussions connected to Armitage were halted.
Graham’s face became perfectly still.
“You cannot do this without me.”
Martin answered quietly.
“We may discover we cannot continue with you.”
Sienna was also suspended.
Her access to company systems, offices, and communications channels was revoked.
She would be interviewed by outside counsel the following morning.
When the meeting ended, security asked Graham to leave through the private garage rather than return to the gala.
He looked at me across the table.
“You humiliated me in front of everyone.”
I gathered the forged packet and placed it inside Celeste’s folder.
“You brought the document to a ballroom and put a pen in my hand.”
“This could have been handled at home.”
“You tried to take my company shares and my home.
Which home did you have in mind?”
His eyes flickered.
