“You really think that still works on us,” I said.

“You think if you throw enough shame at us, we’ll just bend.”

“It’s not shame, Sarah,” she said, her voice rising slightly.

“It is reality.”

“You are a scientist who doesn’t understand how the world works.”

“And your brother is a boy who is throwing away a career out of spite.”

Derek reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a small black flash drive.

He placed it on the table between them.

“What is that?” my father asked, looking at the drive.

“It’s a complete log of the Mitchell Holdings server access from the last three years,” Derek said.

“Every email, every wire transfer, and every project authorization.”

“Including the ones where you authorized the transfer of clean-tech research funds to your offshore accounts.”

Helen’s face didn’t change, but her fingers stopped tapping the folder.

“That is proprietary company data,” she said. “You stole it.”

“I was the Chief Operating Officer of the development division,” Derek said quietly.

“I had administrative access to everything.”

“And I didn’t steal it.”

“I archived it to protect myself from your liabilities.”