CHAPTER 13: The Signature Before Midnight

In the library, after the guests were moved to coffee, Calder laid three documents on Martin's old desk.
The first suspended Adrian's access to foundation accounts. The second initiated an audit of the proposed management entity. The third restored Maria and several senior staff members to direct reporting under Eleanor, not Vanessa.
Adrian stood near the fireplace with his tie loosened and his confidence emptied out of him by procedure.
'You would do this to your son?' he asked.
Eleanor signed the first page.
'I am doing this because you are my son,' she said. 'A stranger would have been removed months ago.'
The sentence reached him more deeply than anger would have.
He looked almost young for one second, and Eleanor hated how much of her still remembered the boy who once hid toy soldiers beneath that same desk.
Then she signed the second page.