The Board Opened The Records Adrian Had Called Mere Housekeeping

I did not give Marcia my employment packet in a parking lot.

"My lawyer can send you a copy," I said.

She nodded. "That would be best."

For the first time that week, someone with power had accepted a boundary without making me defend it.

The board hired separate counsel. Adrian was told to step away from the sale review while the records were checked. He still owned shares, and his name was still on the company website. He could no longer approve the buyer's answers by himself.

The review took seven weeks.

During those weeks, Kansas wheat changed from green to gold. I drove past fields outside Wichita and wanted the clean work of counting rows. Instead, I counted pages, calls, and money leaving my savings account.

Ruth filed my age-discrimination complaint with the proper office. I signed a sworn account of the firing, including Adrian's words about a younger training model.

Two staff members who had heard him gave statements. One was Nina.

I had not asked either to risk a job for me.

"He doesn't get to write what happened," Nina told me. "We were there."

The archive still needed daily checks. Customers still had questions. I answered those under my escrow contracts, but I sent software training requests to the company. I could not keep doing an unpaid job because someone else had left it empty.

Esteban came on Fridays with sandwiches and his adding machine.

"You own a computer," I said.

"This prints the math."

The little paper strip curled beside my red pencil.

We helped Daniel trace the site totals, with written approvals from the owners. Forty-two cooperatives held 126 current site subscriptions. The eighty-eight closed locations belonged in the history archive, where a flood claim or an old grain dispute might still make them useful.

Their past had value. Their past did not create a current bill.

Daniel matched the whole set to invoices, credits, bank deposits, and customer replies. The current annual subscription total was $302,400. The larger figure of $513,600 had never been supported by those payments or contracts.

I boxed the difference on my own worksheet. Then I put the pencil down and let his report stand on its own.

The neutral examiner also reviewed the changed export. She traced the edits to Adrian's user account, then checked that finding against emails and the computer used to create the package.

I had expected one careless instruction.

There were eleven.

Ruth showed me the ones produced in the case. In the first, Adrian told Nina to keep the old site fees in the presentation schedule. Nina replied that the credits left no subscription income for those locations.

He answered: Leave the credits in billing. Buyers want the recurring figure.

A later email to a contract worker asked for the closed flags to be removed from the buyer's sample export. The worker asked whether the closeout pages should remain.

Adrian wrote: Not in the acquisition package.

I read that sentence three times.

He had not misunderstood my little red squares. He had wanted them out of sight.

In a recorded deposition, Ruth asked him about those instructions. I sat behind her with both feet flat on the floor.

"Was Nina authorized to change the underlying billing ledger?" she asked.

"No."

"Did she change it?"

"No."

"Who told her to use the larger number in the sale schedule?"

"I did. It was a sales estimate."

Ruth set his signed revenue statement before him.

"Where is it labeled an estimate?"

His lawyer asked for a break.

Afterward, the board sent a written notice. Adrian was suspended from his chief executive duties. His access to customer records and deal files was removed. An operations manager would run the company during review.

Nina kept her job. The board gave her authority to correct the schedules without asking Adrian.

I read that part aloud to Esteban.

"Good," he said. "Someone ought to be paid for telling the truth."

Nina called after work. She had worried that correcting the schedule would cost everyone their jobs.

"The company still has customers," I told her. "Real ones. They still need the software."

"Do you think they'll stay?"

"Ask them what they need. Then listen."

The next day, she sent out a service survey with no sales pitch attached.

That afternoon, the company withdrew its request to seize my archive. It offered to dismiss the rest of its lawsuit. Ruth said our full agreement still needed to settle costs, my employment complaint, and the written record of what had happened.

I went to bed tired, with fewer things to fear.

The next morning, Leah sent a new purchase proposal based on the verified business. It carried a lower price, a new management plan, and a condition on the first page.

Before closing, the customers had to approve a transfer plan prepared with Bernice Holloway.