“How much?”
Marisol named a figure large enough to threaten the next three harvests.
Cassidy recovered quickly.
“The company needed liquidity.”
“No,” Marisol said.
“It did not.
We ended the quarter above reserve requirements.”
“The funds were for expansion.”
“What expansion?”
Cassidy looked at Ryan.
He looked at the rain.
I understood then that the forged transfer was not their final move.
It was the door they needed to open before borrowing against the company, stripping its assets, and making their control difficult to reverse.
They had not expected me to leave my house.
They had expected a recovering woman with a newborn to accept whatever her husband told her.
Ryan’s voice became soft.
“Evelyn, we can still resolve this.
The loan has not closed.
Nothing permanent has happened.”
“You forged my signature.”
“I did not forge anything.”
Cassidy looked at him.
It was a tiny movement, but everyone saw it.
Ryan saw that they had seen it.
He pointed at her.
“She prepared the documents.”
Cassidy’s face went blank.
“You told me she agreed,” Cassidy said.
“You said the signature would be enough.”
“You brought me the hospital form.”
The room seemed to contract around them.
Neither noticed that they had begun confessing.
I did not interrupt.
Restraint had carried me farther than fury ever could.
Cassidy turned toward the board.
“This is being taken out of context.
Ryan said Evelyn wanted a clean transition.
He said their marriage was over.
He said the company would be ours.”
Ours.
The word hung there beside my grandmother’s ring.
Ryan’s face twisted.
“Do not pretend you were misled.
You drafted the transfer.”
“You approved it.”
“You copied the signature.”
“And you watched me do it.”
Silence followed.
This time, it did not belong to me.
It belonged to them.
I closed the green folder.
“The attempted transfer is void,” I said.
“Every action taken at this unauthorized meeting is void.
The proposed loan is frozen, and no company asset will be pledged or removed.”
Ryan tried to regain his old voice.
“You cannot make unilateral decisions.”
