Carter, what's in front of you is a settlement and mutual release. The number is $11 million. It's paid in three tranches over 18 months. There's no admission of liability. There's a non-disparagement clause, and there's a non-disclosure provision covering the underlying documents.
Ethan didn't touch it. Mr. Carter, how long is the non-disclosure? Perpetual. So, I take $11 million the words hydrogen line again as long as I live.
That's a colorful way to put it. Is it inaccurate? Gerald didn't answer. Ethan turned the folder around with one finger and pushed it back across the table. No, thank you.
Victoria leaned forward. Mr. Carter, I don't think you understand what's being offered. $11 million after tax that is generational money. That's your daughter's college, her graduate school, her house, her children's college.
You will never fill out a form about money again in your life. I understand what it is. Then explain it to me, Victoria said, and there was something raw underneath her voice for the first time. Because I have made 240 offers in 11 years, and I have never once had a man in your position say no, and I would genuinely like to understand what it is you think you're buying with this. Ethan sat back.
You want the real answer? I want the real answer. There's a welder named Danny Whitcomb, Ethan said. 58 years old. He signed the original inspection.
He raised it three times inside your company and got moved to nights and then to on call and then got told his position was restructured. He raises a granddaughter. His wife has diabetes and the insurance was through your company. He put both hands flat on the table. Ma'am, Danny Whitcomb doesn't have a lawyer.
He doesn't have a publicist. He doesn't have a private meeting with a CEO on the 41st floor. Nobody is going to offer that man $11 million because nobody has to. So, this is about him. It's about the 1, 200 people behind him, Ethan said.
They've got exactly one thing going for them, and it isn't money, and it isn't lawyers, and it sure as hell isn't luck. It's that somebody who saw the paperwork was willing to say what was in it out loud. He shook his head slowly. The second I take your money, they've got nothing. That's what your 11 million dollars actually buys, Ms.
Sterling. It buys their one thing. Nobody in the room said anything for a while. Then Victoria said quietly, "25 million. " No. 40.
Ma'am. Name it. Victoria said, and her voice cracked on it, and everyone at that table heard it crack. Name a number. I'm serious.
There is a number. There isn't. There is always a number. Not for this, Ethan said. And I think that's the part that's actually frightening you, and I don't say that to be cruel.
I think you've spent 11 years believing everybody has a price because everybody you've ever met has had one. And if I've got one, too, then this is just a bad quarter. He stood up. But I don't. So it isn't.
At 1: 52, Victoria Sterling stopped negotiating and started threatening. Sit down, Mr. Carter. I'm done. Sit down.
He didn't sit, but he stopped. Kestner Wrydell has been on this since yesterday at noon, Victoria said. Do you know what they found in 19 hours? They found that you took 6 weeks of unpaid leave in 2019, and that the paperwork for it went through occupational health. They found two visits to this building before you came inside.
They found that a welder gave you a company document, which in this state is a conversion of trade secrets, and that you drove it across county lines, which makes it federal. Victoria, Gerald said. They found that you are unemployed as of 8: 00 this morning because your freight company terminated you for cause after we sent them a preservation letter. Ethan's face did not move, but his hand did. The tremor came back and he put it in his jacket pocket.
They found Victoria said that your daughter's school records list you as sole guardian and that a sole guardian who is unemployed and facing federal exposure is a very interesting thing to a county family services office. Maya Reynolds stood up so fast her chair went over. Say the next word. I didn't say anything. You said enough that I'm going to put it in an affidavit tonight.
Put whatever you want in an affidavit, Victoria said. It's a description of facts. And then Ethan Carter laughed. It was not a big laugh. It was one short breath through his nose and it was according to Gerald Vance the most unnerving sound in that entire two-day disaster.
Ma'am, Ethan said, you just made a mistake and I want to be fair to you and tell you what it was. Enlighten me. Up until 11 seconds ago I had every intention of never mentioning my wife to you again. He took his hand back out of his pocket. Sarah Carter, second grade teacher, Bellwood Elementary 14 years.