"There are limits to what we can do," the attorney replied. Preston turned sharply.
"Don't start talking about limits now, Martin. My father relied on you to make those transfers secure. I rely on you to make sure nobody digs them up again." Greer's mouth tightened. He had spent forty-two years pretending that the original fraud was a finished transaction rather than an injury that continued every day.
"Some documents cannot be made secure simply by filing them," Greer said at last. Preston stared at him. "What does that mean?" Greer looked away. "It means we should be careful about creating new problems while defending the old ones."
Preston interpreted the warning as cowardice. He instructed security to bar Altha from the property, ordered staff not to discuss historical records, and approved a public statement describing the founder as an elderly woman confused about a business sale completed decades ago. He also gave lawyers permission to seek a temporary order restricting her presence near the hotel, arguing that she had disrupted guests and posed a risk to the weekend's event. Those accusations bore little resemblance to what the lobby recordings showed.
The videos had already spread among employees and several investors. One clip caught Preston refusing to allow Julian to check the reservation; another showed him threatening Miriam with dismissal. A longer recording followed Altha to the doors and captured her request that security remember her face. People who viewed the footage began asking an uncomfortable question: why had a hotel whose name celebrated Monroe history been so eager to prevent anyone from verifying a Monroe reservation?
By morning, the scandal had reached local reporters. Preston responded with statements about exclusive hospitality standards and guest safety, but he would not answer whether the reservation had been valid. Julian's system logs answered the question quietly: Dr. Altha Grace Monroe had booked an ordinary room, paid in advance, and passed the hotel's normal confirmation process. The reservation remained in the system, showing a guest who had been denied service without a recorded reason.
Julian saved the administrative record through the hotel's required incident procedure. He did not copy guest data for public release, but he reported the discrepancy to internal compliance and offered to give a statement if investigators requested one. He was young, frightened of losing his first good job, and acutely aware that every shift now carried a risk. Still, he could not forget the way Altha had looked at him without blame while Preston used his employment as leverage.
That morning, Celeste learned that police officers had gone to Miriam's apartment with a warrant connected to the alleged document theft. Miriam was taken in for questioning, and her lawyer reached her before she made a detailed statement. The news landed heavily on Altha, who had asked the woman to help. Elias wanted to confront Preston in the lobby that moment, but Celeste stopped him with a question about what the confrontation would achieve.