Chapter Twenty #2
"Read it again," Priya said, watching his face as he scrolled back through the thread a third time. "What does it actually say."
"A junior associate flagged concerns about historical appraisal methodology across several older acquisitions, the Belmere among six properties mentioned generally, not specifically.
My reply was two words. Noted, thanks. Sent from my phone at eleven at night, in the middle of the Singapore trip for the resort chain acquisition that year.
" Damon set the tablet down, rubbing a hand across his jaw.
"I genuinely don't remember reading the substance of that thread.
I remember being buried in a different deal entirely that month. "
"Does that matter, though, to the board. Whether you remember it or not."
"It should matter. I'm not certain it will.
" He looked at her directly. "I'm not going to pretend the reply doesn't exist, or argue it means something other than what it plainly shows.
I acknowledged a thread that mentioned the Belmere's appraisal methodology as a general concern, six years before I claim to have learned the specifics from my father directly.
That's a real inconsistency in my timeline, however unintentional. "
Priya was quiet a moment. "You could frame this several ways to the board. Some more favorable to you than others."
"I know. I'm going to frame it as exactly what it was.
A moment of carelessness during an overwhelming period, not deliberate concealment, but not full attention to something that deserved more of it either.
" Damon met her eyes steadily. "I've spent the last several months learning that the honest version, even when it's less flattering, tends to hold up better than the carefully managed one.
I'd rather test that principle now than abandon it the moment it gets uncomfortable. "
He called Harriet directly rather than waiting for Julian to weaponize the discovery first.
"I found something I need to disclose before Julian sends it to you himself," Damon said, once she'd answered.
"An email chain from six years ago. My name is on one reply, acknowledging awareness of appraisal concerns at a surface level, though I genuinely don't recall absorbing the substance at the time given the volume of correspondence I was managing that period.
I want you to have it directly from me, with full context, rather than filtered through Julian's framing. "
Harriet was quiet a moment. "Send it over. I'll review it myself before drawing any conclusions."
"I understand if this changes the board's confidence in the disclosure I made weeks ago."
"It might. Or it might simply confirm that even careful, well intentioned men miss things buried in routine correspondence, which is a considerably more common human failing than deliberate concealment.
" Harriet's voice carried something almost gentle, an assessment rather than a verdict.
"I've watched you handle every escalation of this situation with more honesty than your father ever managed with anything, Damon.
I'm not going to pretend this new wrinkle doesn't complicate the picture.
I am going to give you the chance to explain it directly, in the interview, rather than convicting you in advance based on Julian's framing alone. "
"Thank you. I don't take that trust lightly, given everything."
"Don't thank me yet. The interview is still ahead of you, and Julian will present this in the worst possible light regardless of what you tell me privately.
" Harriet's tone sharpened slightly, practical rather than unkind.
"Prepare thoroughly. Bring the full email thread, not just the excerpt Julian will likely present.
Context matters enormously here, and you'll want the board to see the entire conversation, not a single line stripped of everything around it. "
"I'll have it ready."
"One more thing, Damon." Harriet's voice softened again.
"However this board interview resolves, I hope you're taking equally serious care of whatever's happening in your marriage.
I don't pretend to know the details, and it's not my business to ask.
But a man distracted by genuine personal crisis doesn't always present his best case to a room full of skeptical board members.
Handle what you need to handle at home, as much as you're able, before you walk into that interview. "
Damon thanked her, and ended the call with a specific, hard won relief, understanding that whatever the board ultimately decided, he'd chosen, for the first time in this entire ordeal, to bring a vulnerability forward himself rather than wait for someone else to weaponize it against him.
It felt, sitting alone in his office with the evening settling outside his window, like the first genuinely uncomplicated victory he'd managed in weeks, not because the outcome was certain, but because the choice itself had finally been the right one, made for its own sake rather than for strategic advantage.
He thought, driving home that evening, about Harriet's advice regarding Elena, about the specific truth that no board interview, however he handled it, would matter as much as whatever happened with the woman currently staying at her mother's house, working through a grief he'd caused and a love neither of them had fully chosen.
He didn't know yet how to close that distance without pushing her faster than she was ready to go.
He only knew, pulling into the empty driveway, that he intended to keep showing up honestly, in whatever form she'd allow, for as long as it took her to decide whether the man standing in front of her now was worth the risk of trusting again.
He sat in the car a long moment before going inside, thinking about his grandfather's letter, about the specific hope articulated decades ago for genuine amends rather than mere transaction.
He understood now, more clearly than he had even a week earlier, that the amends his grandfather had wished for could never be completed through the marriage itself, only through the honest, ongoing work of becoming a man worthy of the love that had somehow grown inside a debt neither he nor Elena had chosen.
That work, he suspected, was only just beginning, regardless of how the board interview or Julian's leverage ultimately resolved.