“He’s going to try to sign the papers before the regulators can stop him.”

“We need to get up there,” I said.

We turned toward the concrete stairs, our footsteps echoing loudly in the narrow stairwell.

As we climbed, my phone lit up in my hand.

It was a text message from Dina.

I stopped on the landing, my heart skipping a beat as I read the words.

“Helen just left the boardroom,” the message read.

“She has the master key to the basement furnace room.”

I looked up at Lorna and Marcus, the cold realization hitting me.

“He isn’t trying to sign the papers,” I said.

“He’s going to burn the archives.”

“We have to go to the boardroom first,” Marcus said, his voice tight.

“But Helen is in the basement,” I said. “She will burn my father’s papers.”

“The state regulators are already in the boardroom,” Marcus said, pulling me toward the upper flight. “If we show them the audit now, they can freeze every asset and call the police to lock down the building.”

Lorna gripped my arm, her fingers pressing hard into my sleeve.