Stan looked worse.
Adrian closed the folder.
“I entered the negotiation through an intermediary because I suspected Stan would behave differently if he knew I was involved.”
“And did he?” Harper asked.
“He claimed sole authority over the diner.”
Stan shook his head violently.
“I never said sole ownership.”
“You submitted an ownership schedule omitting Harper entirely.”
“That was preliminary.”
“You signed it.”
“It was a draft.”
“My counsel has the executed copy.”
Stan’s face emptied.
For the first time since Cole entered, Harper stopped feeling afraid.
She felt furious.
Not hot, reckless fury.
Something cleaner.
For years, Stan had controlled the schedule, the register, the vendor accounts, and every conversation about money.
Harper had accepted all of it because he had been her mother’s friend.
Because he had stood beside her at Claire’s funeral.
Because he had hugged her afterward and promised, “You’ll always have a place here.”
Now she understood why.
A place here.
Just not her place.
Harper set the ownership document flat on the counter.
“How much?” she asked.
Stan blinked.
“What?”
“How much were you selling it for?”
Adrian gave the number.
Harper almost laughed.
It was more money than she had imagined touching in her life.
Then Adrian added, “Stan’s proposed distribution gave himself eighty percent of the proceeds.”
Harper looked at Stan.
He tried one last time.
“I was accounting for years of management.”
“You paid yourself a salary.”
“A small one.”
“You told me the diner couldn’t afford health insurance.”
“That has nothing to do with—”
“You cut my hours last winter because I asked to see the books.”
Stan stopped.
Harper remembered that week perfectly.
He had told her she was becoming difficult.
Adrian pulled out a chair.
“Sit down, Harper.”
She almost snapped at him too.
Then she saw his face.
Not command this time.
An offer.
She sat.
Cole unlocked the front door long enough to let in three people who had been waiting in another vehicle: a woman carrying a leather case and two men with folders tucked under their coats.
No one introduced themselves with drama.
They simply laid out documents.
Bank records.
Corporate filings.
