Chapter 7: The File They Thought Was Deleted
Celina’s assistant resigned.
Not from the company.
From Celina personally.
Her name was Marissa Cole, twenty-six, and she asked to speak with Katherine before anyone in the family learned she was leaving.
Marissa did not claim she had witnessed a conspiracy.
She described pressure.
In the week before the banquet, Celina repeatedly asked whether the directors had confirmed attendance.
She checked the dessert-service timing three times.
She asked whether Emmett would be allowed to carry his own dish.
Marissa assumed Celina wanted a sentimental family moment.
Then there was an envelope.
“What envelope?” Katherine asked.
Marissa looked uncomfortable.
“Board packets.”
“When?”
“Friday.”
“Before the banquet?”
“Yes.”
“What was inside?”
“I didn’t read them.”
“Who received them?”
“Lucille.”
Marissa had printed seven copies of a document Celina emailed her.
The file was later deleted from Celina’s shared folder.
IT recovered the title from backup metadata:
Chairman Continuity Options.
Rafael stared at the report.
“Options for what?”
“We don’t have the contents yet,” Katherine said.
“Why?”
“Deleted before backup finished syncing.”
No convenient miracle restored it.
Only the title survived.
Rafael actually appreciated that.
Real investigations often contained holes.
Katherine continued.
“We may get a copy from one of the recipients.”
“Assuming Lucille distributed them.”
“Yes.”
Rafael thought about the banquet.
Seven directors near the dessert terrace.
Seven printed packets.
A private continuity meeting scheduled afterward.
Celina ensuring Emmett personally carried the cobbler.
Lucille tasting the cobbler earlier without disgust.
Then publicly kicking it away.
Rafael could see the outline.
He still did not have the center.
That night Emmett asked whether Lucille hated him.
Rafael felt helpless in a way guns, money, and boardrooms had never produced.
“I don’t know what Lucille feels.”
Emmett frowned.
“Family loves.”
Rafael swallowed.
“They’re supposed to.”
“Then why kick?”
There was no safe lie.
“Because adults sometimes do cruel things when they care more about what they want than about someone else’s feelings.”
Emmett leaned against him.
“Are we family?”
Rafael wrapped one arm around him.
“Yes.”
That answer came without hesitation.
Later, alone, Rafael realized the sentence he shouted at the banquet had been wrong.
He did not reject his family.
May you like
He rejected the idea that family was allowed to behave without consequence.
That distinction was going to matter.
