"Who authorized the original legal structure?" Angela asked.
Daniel looked toward Evelyn, who opened a second file. "Adrian Vale's department coordinated it, using outside firms operating through several jurisdictions. The ownership records point toward another investor, but the identities behind those structures remain under examination. We have provided the materials to the appropriate authorities through counsel, together with our concerns about misleading corporate statements."
At the mention of Adrian's name, Marcus went very still. Victoria remembered that Adrian had insisted on firing Daniel before the Denver trip. She looked at the empty chair usually occupied by her chief legal officer and understood that his absence was not an accident. The audit committee had apparently chosen not to invite him until the evidence-preservation process was secure.
"Why isn't he here?" she asked.
Angela answered. "Because we are taking steps to protect the integrity of the investigation. He has been informed of the audit and of the requirement to preserve records. We are not conducting a private confrontation or prejudging his conduct."
Daniel closed the laptop screen for a moment. "There's one other part of this that matters," he said. "Whatever happens to the executives, I don't want the employees who identified these problems blamed for speaking up. Maria Alvarez, Leo Bennett, Renee Foster, and others have already absorbed enough professional pressure for telling the truth. If the board takes action, protecting them must be part of it."
Victoria turned sharply. "You've named people. Have they consented to being involved?"
"Their reports were filed through company channels. We have not disclosed private information beyond what counsel determined was necessary for the board's review. But you should know they exist, and that their concerns deserve the same seriousness as mine."
The room went quiet. Victoria opened the folder Angela had passed her and read an extract from Leo's original report. It was detailed, cautious, and written without accusation, exactly the sort of technical document she had once said she valued. At the bottom appeared an annotation added by Adrian's office: no further review required. Victoria could no longer remember why that phrase had seemed reassuring when she saw it in earlier summaries.
"What do you want?" she asked Daniel.
He considered the question. "First, protect the evidence and cooperate fully with independent investigators. Second, stop the practices causing immediate harm while we determine what actually happened. Third, preserve the business wherever we can, because employees and customers should not pay for an executive failure they didn't create. After that, we can talk about governance."
"You have enough shares to try to replace this board."
"We have enough influence to demand attention, and potentially enough support to change the board if it refuses to act," Daniel corrected. "Those are not the same thing. I would rather use that influence to make the business work."
Victoria sat back. A day earlier she had imagined that the worst possible outcome was losing her position to the man she had humiliated. Now she understood that the company might be at risk of being stripped for parts by people she herself had promoted. Her title suddenly seemed less like a prize worth defending than a responsibility she had been performing without seeing clearly enough.