Chapter 8 - THE BOARD’S FINAL REPORT
Callahan Ridge Consulting completed its independent review nine months after Derek’s removal as CEO.
The findings were serious.
Derek had failed to disclose his romantic relationship with Sloane while approving or influencing Apex contracts.
He had approved related-party payments without adequate governance safeguards.
He had made inaccurate certifications regarding conflicts.
He had blurred transactions between Holdings and the operating company.
But investigators did not find evidence that he stole customer funds, fabricated company revenue on a broad scale, or created a massive hidden embezzlement scheme.
That distinction mattered to hundreds of employees.
The company was not a criminal shell.
It was a functioning business with governance failures centered heavily around its founder.
The board negotiated Derek’s permanent departure from executive management.
He retained a reduced economic interest after restructuring and settlement of certain claims.
He resigned his board seat.
A new CEO was appointed.
The company continued.
Derek’s identity did not.
For the first time since I met him, he was not “founder and CEO.”
He was Derek.
That seemed to terrify him.
He requested, through Rachel, permission to send me one letter.
I agreed.
It began badly.
I was under enormous pressure.
I nearly stopped.
Then:
I keep writing that sentence because I want pressure to become a reason. It is not.
I kept reading.
He admitted the copied-signature practice began casually.
Years earlier, I had once asked him to sign a routine insurance form on my behalf after discussing it.
From that one permission, he created a private rule.
Elena hates paperwork.
Elena trusts me.
Elena would approve.
Then:
Eventually “she would approve” became “I don’t need to ask.”
That was painfully accurate.
He wrote about Sloane.
No excuses.
He said the affair began after the Apex business relationship.
He enjoyed being admired by someone who knew him only as successful.
At home, I knew his weaknesses.
Sloane knew the version he sold.
Then he wrote:
I punished you for seeing me accurately.
I put the letter down.
That sentence reached somewhere I did not want accessed.
May you like
I still did not want him back.
But I believed, for the first time, that he might understand part of what he had done.
