I looked across the street at the campus gates.

Students were walking past, laughing and carrying backpacks, their lives uncomplicated by the corporate machinery I had spent years building.

My mother had found the one loose thread in our entire financial structure.

“How long do we have to make a decision?” I asked.

“The escrow expires at midnight,” Marcus said.

“And if we accept it?” I asked.

“She owns five percent of Solar Reach,” Derek said quietly. “And she gets her name on the press release.”

Just then, my screen flashed with an incoming call from an unknown, local number.

I tapped the screen to put Marcus and Derek on hold.

I slid my thumb across the glass to answer the incoming call.

“Sarah?”

It was my mother’s voice, crisp and perfectly modulated.

She sounded as though she were sitting in a quiet parlor rather than steering a hostile financial maneuver.

“Hello, Mom,” I said.

“I assumed you would be busy, but I wanted to make sure you received the documents,” she said.

The breeze coming off the eucalyptus trees near the campus gates was cool against my face.