The Storage Inventory

Richard's lawyer sent the storage inventory the following week. It listed the boxes collected from the first office, including supplier correspondence and early financial records. The storage company confirmed that most boxes had been moved to a newer facility five years earlier. One box was not listed in the new inventory.

Priya asked for a search. Richard said the missing box probably contained duplicate invoices. Priya did not accuse him of hiding it. She requested the records showing when it had last been accessed and who had authorized the move.

Ruth compared the new inventory with her carbon copy. The missing box was labeled B-4. Her list described it as “supplier letters and loan paperwork.” The label did not prove what remained inside when it was moved. It gave the storage company a specific item to look for.

Maya's files included a copy of a supplier agreement signed by both Richard and me. The agreement concerned a payment schedule, not ownership. It showed that I had authority to negotiate that particular arrangement. The financial expert placed it alongside the invoices and asked for records of the account used to make payments.

Richard's lawyer proposed that we settle without waiting for the search. The offer was higher than the first, but it still relied on a valuation that the financial expert could not verify from the summary provided. Priya explained the offer and its consequences. She did not tell me what to choose. I decided to wait for the missing schedules and the storage search.

Richard called me directly that evening. We had agreed that financial discussions would go through our lawyers. I answered because I thought there might be a family emergency.

“You're looking for a box that doesn't matter,” he said.

“Then the search should establish that.”

“You want to punish me.”

“I want enough information to make a decision.”

He said the company had survived because he had taken risks I did not understand. I reminded him that I had negotiated with suppliers when those risks left invoices unpaid. We had both contributed, in different ways. The question was how the law and the records treated those contributions, not whose work sounded more impressive.

When the call ended, I wrote a note for Priya. She reminded Richard's lawyer of the communication arrangement. The next day Richard sent a brief message apologizing for calling directly. He did not withdraw his position, but he agreed to use counsel for financial matters.

Maya met with the financial expert by video. She described drafting early project plans and attending meetings where I discussed supplier payments. She was careful to distinguish what she remembered from what the documents showed. She did not remember a final ownership agreement and said so.

“I don't want to help by guessing,” she told the expert.

Priya later said that answer made her testimony more useful. A witness who acknowledged uncertainty was not a weaker witness simply because she could not supply the ending someone wanted.

The storage company found B-4 in a section reserved for files awaiting reclassification. Its label had been partly covered by a later sticker. The box was sealed and delivered to a neutral document-review service under an agreed procedure. Both sides would receive an inventory and copies of relevant records.

I expected to feel triumphant when Priya called. Instead I felt tired. The box had been found, but we did not yet know what it contained. I wrote the review date on my calendar and made dinner. The truth would still be there in the morning, and I wanted to meet it rested.