Chapter 18 - Grant’s Offer
Grant chose an unfinished hotel for the meeting.
Victoria attended with Evelyn while police watched from nearby rooms. Arthur had been ordered to remain at Meridian with the children.
Grant stood beside a window overlooking the river.
He appeared calm despite the investigations, lawsuits and custody proceedings surrounding him.
“Brooke is alive,” he said.
“Where is she?”
“She left voluntarily.”
“Then let her say that herself.”
Grant placed a tablet on the table.
A live video showed Brooke sitting in an unfamiliar room. She looked tired but unharmed.
“Victoria,” Brooke said, “don’t give him anything.”
The screen went dark.
Grant explained his proposal.
Victoria would transfer the family support center and its technology to Hawthorne Family Holdings. In return, Grant would surrender the stolen employee records and withdraw his attempt to control the twins’ trust.
“The center is not valuable enough to justify this,” Victoria said.
“The building isn’t.”
“What do you want?”
“The predictive system beneath it.”
Meridian’s family program used an internal platform to forecast staffing needs, benefit costs and long-term employee retention.
It had never been offered commercially.
Grant believed the platform could be adapted to predict which companies were vulnerable to leadership changes, labor shortages and financial pressure.
He did not want to support families.
He wanted to identify businesses that could be broken cheaply.
Victoria refused.
Grant smiled.
“Then the files become public tomorrow.”
As Victoria turned to leave, he added one final warning.
“Arthur will lose the children. Brooke will go to prison. Your board will remove you.”
“And what happens to you?”
May you like
Grant looked toward the river.
“I become the man who rescued Meridian from you.”
