Chapter 18 - THE CONTRACTS
Natalie wanted leverage, not escape.
The original contracts carried my stamped executive approval from years earlier.
Not signatures on the theft itself.
Approvals of the agency structure that later enabled it.
Enough to make headlines.
Enough to tell the public I had known everything.
I told Claire the truth.
'If the contracts are real, release them.'
She studied me.
'Even if they damage you?'
'Especially then.'
We found Natalie at a private records facility in Indiana owned by one of our old subsidiaries.
State police arrested her outside.
No chase.
No gunfire.
Just a woman in an expensive coat standing beside a suitcase full of paper that had once frightened everyone around her.
The contracts were real.
So were my approvals.
At the press conference, I did not hide behind counsel.
'I did not know wages were being stolen,' I said. 'But I signed structures I did not understand because I believed delegation excused attention. It did not.'
Reporters shouted questions.
One asked if I would resign permanently.
'Yes.'
The room changed.
The board had been preparing to restore me after Natalie's arrest.
I refused.
Blackwell needed an independent CEO.
Not another family member promising this time would be different.
Natalie was charged with fraud, wage theft conspiracy, retaliation, bribery, and obstruction.
Owen pleaded guilty to conspiracy and retaliation.
Malcolm faced civil and criminal proceedings.
Patricia received cooperation credit.
Victor Dane was charged for intimidation and unlawful access.
The recovered money exceeded thirty million dollars after hidden accounts were located.
Then came the question everyone kept asking me.
What happens to June?
They expected a promotion story.
A mansion.
A check with cameras around it.
June refused all of that.
'I want what I'm owed,' she told me. 'And I want the next person to know what she's owed before she has to ask you at two in the morning.'
That became the blueprint.
May you like
But one final audit result still waited.
Grace found a payroll entry under June's name dated before she had ever worked for Blackwell.
