Charlotte learned to live with the uncomfortable pace. She provided records when requested, answered questions about her decisions, and allowed the investigators to challenge her assumptions. The company announced improvements to technical access controls, inventory traceability, whistleblower protections, and the independence of safety reviews. None of those changes could bring Daniel back, but they might help the next employee who noticed a problem and feared saying so.
One afternoon Marcus Hail asked Evan to meet him in the old workshop. The room had been cleaned and secured for preservation, though the drafting tables remained where the investigators found them. Marcus stood beside the photograph of his father and Daniel, looking uncertain whether he had a right to be there. He had spent several weeks answering questions, and the process had forced him to confront parts of his family history he previously regarded as too painful to examine.
"I thought about leaving the company," Marcus said. "Maybe I still will. Every time somebody says my last name, I wonder what they know."
Evan nodded. "I know that feeling."
"I suppose you do."
Marcus looked at the picture. "Thomas taught me a lot about engineering. He made sure I could calculate a load path before I was twelve. He also taught me that getting caught was worse than doing something wrong. I didn't realize how much of that I carried until this happened."
"Then you get to decide what to carry next," Evan said.
Marcus gave a tired smile. "You make it sound simple."
"I didn't say it was easy."
They stood in silence for a while. Marcus eventually offered to help catalogue the remaining historical drawings, provided an independent archivist supervised the work. Evan agreed, and they spent the afternoon identifying old parts, reading notes, and separating documents that deserved preservation from the debris of a forgotten laboratory. The activity felt like repair of a different kind, one performed without the certainty that every damaged thing could return to its original condition.
The press conference took place on a bright morning in the same headquarters lobby where Evan had arrived carrying his toolbox. Charlotte had asked the board to let an independent representative summarize the investigation first, but she insisted on making the company's acknowledgment herself. Behind the lectern stood a large photograph of Daniel Carter, taken in the original workshop before the scandal. His expression was thoughtful, his sleeves rolled, his hand resting on a piece of machinery he had helped design.
Reporters, employees, former colleagues, and members of Daniel's family filled the space. Raymond Pierce stood near the back, dressed in a clean blue jacket with his old maintenance badge clipped to the pocket. Nadia waited beside two young apprentices from the prototype division. Evan remained close to the rear exit with Lily, who held her metal model car and wondered why so many grown-ups needed cameras to hear somebody tell the truth.
Charlotte stepped to the microphone. She looked at the assembled audience without smiling. The company logo stretched across the wall behind her, enormous and immaculate, but she had chosen to stand beside Daniel's photograph rather than directly in front of it.