I watched Grant’s eyes move rapidly across the screen as he opened the encrypted application.

His face went from pale to a deep, angry red.

“You…” he breathed, his hand shaking so violently the phone almost slipped from his fingers.

“Grant, listen to me,” Vanessa cried, reaching for his lapels.

“They were going to crush us anyway. This was the only way to save our shares.”

“You gave them the proprietary valuation models,” Grant said, his voice barely a whisper.

“You told them exactly when the trust restriction would trigger.”

“They offered us a seat on the new board!” she screamed, abandoning her defense.

“Your company is failing, Grant! Without the grandfather clause, you have no liquid capital!”

“You betrayed me,” he said, staring at her as if she were a stranger.

“I did what I had to do to survive,” Vanessa said, her voice turning cold and sharp.

She smoothed down her ruined jacket and stepped back, her composure returning like a mask.

“If you had just signed the papers and let me handle the restructure, we could have walked away with billions.”