Chapter 15 - TEN DAYS
I spent the first two days in medical appointments.
June’s heart rate remained stable. Her growth lagged but did not require delivery.
Dr. Hart ordered rest.
I attended South Basin meetings from the apartment sofa with compression sleeves around my legs.
The independent trustee, Daniel Price, assembled environmental engineers, farm representatives, employees, and lenders.
North Basin Renewal offered immediate cash.
Our alternative had to address contamination, company debt, and employment without selling control to a conflicted buyer.
A public water authority expressed interest in a long-term operating partnership.
A farmer cooperative wanted veto rights over groundwater changes.
Employees proposed converting Site Two into a remediation and water-technology center rather than a waste repository.
The plan generated less immediate money.
It preserved more local control and required transparent cleanup funding.
Morgan Environmental’s lenders were skeptical.
My father’s trust held a contamination recovery reserve nobody could yet access because the final pages were damaged.
Caleb may have known its size.
Judith’s financial records contained repeated references to “the forty-eight.”
Forty-eight percent?
Forty-eight million?
Page forty-eight?
Mara did not know.
She said Caleb kept the true numbers from everyone.
Even Judith understood only that the birth audit would “take everything back.”
The prosecutor prepared financial charges but waited for restored records.
The physical-abuse case could proceed independently.
I met employee representatives.
A plant operator named Rosa Delgado asked:
“Are you stopping the sale because your husband supported it?”
“No.”
“Would you support the same deal if another buyer offered it?”
“Not without resolving contamination, conflicts, and local-water impact.”
“Can your alternative guarantee our jobs?”
“No.”
The honest answer frustrated her.
North Basin guaranteed 400 new jobs on paper.
Its financial model assumed permits regulators now questioned.
A guarantee built on impossible approvals was marketing.
Our alternative preserved 260 current positions and estimated 180 future roles after remediation.
Less dramatic.
More verifiable.
Rosa joined the planning team without endorsing me personally.
That distinction made the process stronger.
On day seven, I developed contractions.
Dr. Hart admitted me overnight.
The board refused to extend the deadline.
Helen accused Hollow Creek of exploiting medical vulnerability.
Their attorney said business could not pause for one shareholder’s pregnancy.
He was partly right.
That was why the trust needed structures larger than my body.
I authorized Daniel Price to present the alternative without me.
No hospital-bed vote.
No heroic speech.
On day ten, the committee delayed the sale by one vote and opened formal comparison of both proposals.
Franklin Ross’s replacement cast the deciding vote.
North Basin sued.
The public-water plan survived another week.
Then forensic technicians restored part of Schedule Seven.
The descendant trust held fifty-one percent of South Basin voting rights.
At birth, June would control the majority through independent stewardship.
The full audit would examine every transaction since my father’s death.
May you like
Caleb’s consulting fees were not the largest thing it would find.
Forty-eight referred to forty-eight million dollars missing from the contamination reserve.
