“That was symbolic rent.
We were helping her.”
“In a flooded unfinished basement?” I asked.
“Hazel,” she hissed.
That tone had worked on me since childhood.
One sharp use of my name and I would usually shrink, apologize, or change the subject.
This time I waited.
She had nothing behind it.
Piper shifted in her chair.
“Can we stop acting like this is some crime? We were trying to create something together.
My brand could have helped her.”
Vivien looked at her for the first time.
“What exactly did you contribute to the algorithm?”
Piper hesitated.
“I was going to help with exposure.”
“Before or after the acquisition offer?”
Piper looked toward Marcus.
Wrong move.
Vivien noticed.
Julian noticed.
Everyone noticed.
Marcus leaned forward.
“This is getting theatrical.
My clients—”
“They’re not your clients,” Julian said.
Marcus’s jaw tightened.
Julian continued.
“And you have another problem.”
He removed a copy of the agreement Marcus had brought into the room.
The document demanded that I transfer fifty percent of the patent rights to an entity associated with Piper’s business interests.
Marcus had framed it as a family settlement.
But he had made one mistake.
He had moved too quickly.
In the metadata attached to an earlier electronic version, the agreement had been created before my parents came to my apartment pretending to reconcile.
Before their apology.
Before they claimed Marcus had suddenly convinced them to repair the family.
The document existed while they were still telling me the fight was about fairness.
Their plan to take half the acquisition proceeds had already been drafted.
My father stared at Marcus.
“You said that version was only a template.”
Marcus turned sharply.
“Winston, don’t.”
Too late.
Julian leaned back.
I could almost hear the click of another door closing.
Vivien said, “Mr.
Hale, when did you first learn Apex was considering an acquisition?”
Marcus answered carefully.
“I heard rumors.”
“When?”
“I don’t remember.”
“We do.”
She nodded toward another Apex executive.
An internal access report appeared.
Weeks earlier, a banker involved in peripheral discussions had made an unauthorized inquiry about whether Apex was evaluating a privately held medical AI system developed by an independent data scientist in Seattle.
The inquiry did not reveal the purchase price.
