My phone rang again.

This time, it was Elias.

I let it ring three times before I answered.

“Ava,” he said, his voice stripped of its usual calm authority. “What did you send to my board?”

“The truth, Elias,” I said. “I sent them the bank records for Blue Harbor Holdings.”

“Daniel is my partner,” Elias said. “He has been for fifteen years.”

“Your partner has been stealing from you since my father died,” I said. “He used your signature to fund his personal patent vault.”

There was a long pause on the line.

I could hear the muffled sound of shouting in the background of his office.

“You should have come to me first,” Elias said.

“Why?” I asked. “So you could cover it up to protect the stock price? You would have paid Daniel off and buried my father’s name forever.”

“This will ruin the company, Ava,” he said, his voice cracking slightly. “This is my life’s work.”

“It was my father’s life’s work too,” I said. “And you let Daniel steal it.”

I hung up the phone.