Everly read the statement twice.
Then she smiled for the first time since entering Aaron’s orbit.
Aaron noticed.
“What?”
“He overplayed it.”
She pointed to one paragraph.
“If these liabilities were understood, then his earlier summary memo is false because it described the routes as transferring free of legacy obligations.”
Another paragraph.
“And here he claims the arbitration restriction was requested to streamline disputes.
But his own handwritten note says to keep it out of your summary.”
Aaron read in silence.
Everly leaned back.
“He had two choices.
Admit he concealed the liabilities, or claim everyone knew.
He chose the second.”
“And?”
“And now his documents prove he lied either way.”
Aaron looked at her.
“You enjoyed that.”
“A little.”
The collapse happened quickly after that.
The acquisition was canceled before a dollar changed hands.
Marcus’s position became impossible.
He could no longer tell Aaron the clause was meaningless, because the drafting history proved otherwise.
He could not claim ignorance, because his own notes tracked every revision.
He could not claim Aaron had been informed, because the summary materials deliberately omitted the changes.
The trap failed before closing.
Four hundred million dollars in potential liabilities stayed exactly where Marcus and whoever stood behind the transaction had intended to leave them: outside Aaron’s companies.
Marcus did not return to Chicago.
Aaron did not explain whether that was because he had obeyed the order or because he finally understood how much evidence existed against him.
Everly did not ask.
Some answers were safer when they remained irrelevant.
Three days later, Aaron placed a different document in front of her.
This one was only six pages.
Everly eyed it suspiciously.
“What am I buying?”
“Nothing.”
“What am I indemnifying?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why is there a contract?”
“Because unlike Marcus, I prefer people to know what they are agreeing to.”
She sat.
It was a consulting agreement.
Temporary.
Legitimate.
Limited to reviewing contracts and transaction documents connected to Aaron’s lawful businesses.
The compensation made her stare at the number longer than she wanted him to notice.
He noticed.
“This is too much.”
“It is less than you saved me.”
“That isn’t how compensation works.”
“It can be.”
Everly turned the page.
“You included tuition assistance.”
“If you choose to go back.”
Her eyes lifted.
