On Sunday evening, Judith called with an update. The special shareholder meeting had been validly noticed, an independent attorney had verified the ownership records, and Eleanor Finch had secured agreement from a majority of the directors to preserve company data. Ryan was contesting the revocation of his delegated voting authority, but the court had scheduled an expedited hearing on the immediate disputes. The next week would determine whether the company began repairing itself or descended into a fight that might cost employees more than any executive's pride.
"Are you frightened?" Judith asked.
"Yes," Otis answered. "I have been frightened for years. I just haven't let that be the only thing I feel."
She hung up, opened Thomas's old notebook, and placed a fresh pad beside it. On the first page she wrote the names of four hundred people she did not yet know individually. She could not promise to fix every problem. She could promise to stop treating those people as a number on someone else's slide.
The hearing took place on Monday in a courtroom so plain that Ryan appeared offended by it. There were no chandeliers, no boardroom screens, and no polished table long enough to place a hierarchy between him and the people questioning him. Otis sat beside Judith with a notebook on her lap. Across the aisle, Ryan's lawyer, Nolan Creed, arranged a stack of documents while his client watched the judge with tightly controlled impatience.
The judge made clear that she was not there to settle the entire history of Sterling Corporation in an afternoon. She was being asked for limited protection against potentially improper corporate action while ownership and governance claims were reviewed. Judith presented the authenticated stock register, the current trustee statement, the founder agreement, and evidence that the disputed reduction in force could create irreversible consequences. Creed argued that interfering with management would damage the company's financial position.
"That concern is substantial," the judge said. "So is the evidence that a major decision may be proceeding without the required notice and review."
After several hours, she issued a temporary order preserving specified corporate records and preventing the disputed layoffs from taking effect until the expedited governance process was completed. She declined to decide who should hold the chief executive position at that hearing. Otis accepted the narrow ruling without smiling. Preventing immediate harm was a beginning, not a victory.
Outside the courthouse, reporters gathered around the steps. Ryan described the order as a temporary procedural delay caused by a disgruntled former employee. He repeated that he had guided Sterling through the company's most profitable years and that the workforce plan was essential to its future. The language sounded persuasive until a reporter asked whether he disputed the authenticated ownership register.
He avoided the question. He spoke instead about stability, business experience, and the dangers of amateur leadership. Otis watched from the doorway, seeing the ease with which he substituted a personal insult for an answer he could not comfortably give.