Chapter 5
Damon called only after the board unsealed the names.
“Congratulations, number seventeen.”
“You knew?”
“Not until everyone else did.”
“Did you influence anything?”
“No.”
Charlotte waited for irritation.
None came.
Instead Damon said, “And since you asked me to recuse myself, I expect you to verify that with the board.”
She smiled despite herself.
“I will.”
Preston’s professional humiliation did not end with the competition.
An independent audit found two earlier presentations containing Charlotte’s concepts. One file had originally carried her initials before they were removed.
Preston claimed she had given him permission because they lived together.
No written assignment existed.
He was suspended.
That should have ended it.
Instead, losing control made him dangerous.
Rumors began first.
Charlotte had been seeing Damon before the breakup.
Charlotte had stolen confidential information.
Charlotte had slept her way into the Grand Meridian contract.
Then the rumors became paperwork.
Years earlier, Preston had formed a small consulting company in Charlotte’s name, supposedly so she could receive occasional design fees.
She had forgotten the company existed.
Preston had not.
Someone reopened its dormant account using a copied version of Charlotte’s signature.
Six hundred thousand dollars passed through it and disappeared forty-eight hours later.
Then an anonymous complaint accused Charlotte of accepting that money in exchange for confidential access to the Grand Meridian project.
The city froze her contract.
Her largest private client suspended another job.
By sunset, a gossip site had photographs of Charlotte leaving Damon’s building after dinner and a headline suggesting the mafia boss had purchased himself an architect.
Charlotte sat alone in her apartment looking at the unopened box of oil paints on her counter.
For ten minutes, she allowed herself to feel humiliated.
Then she opened a notebook.
“Facts,” she whispered.
Her designs existed before Preston used them.
The financial authorization didn’t originate from her device.
May you like
Preston had access to her old signature and company records.
Three facts.
