Chapter 14 - Anna’s Missing Share Certificate
Maria spent the next three weeks saying almost nothing publicly.
It drove reporters crazy.
It also calmed the case.
Discovery continued.
The missing stock certificate became central.
Certificate No. 2 had appeared in Thomas’s photograph.
David remembered signing it.
Gerald Pike appeared to have countersigned it.
But the company’s official stock ledger contained no issuance to Anna.
Under corporate law, that discrepancy mattered.
The certificate could be evidence of issuance.
The ledger could be evidence against it.
Context would decide.
Then Daniel Stone found an old storage invoice.
Gerald Pike had rented a safe-deposit box at First Newark Bank until his death.
Afterward, the contents were transferred to his estate attorney.
Sofia contacted the estate.
Most files had been destroyed according to retention schedules.
One sealed package remained because the label read:
STONE / A.M. ORIGINALS — DO NOT DESTROY WITHOUT CLIENT NOTICE.
Maria held her breath.
The estate attorney refused to release it voluntarily.
Correctly.
A subpoena followed.
Rebecca’s lawyers fought.
The court ordered production subject to privilege review.
Days stretched.
Maria returned to cooking while she waited.
Not professionally.
At home.
She made Anna’s S-01 citrus chicken for Leo and Sofia.
Leo took one bite.
“That’s Rebecca’s signature dish.”
Maria smiled sadly.
“No.”
She looked at the notebook.
“It’s Anna’s.”
The package arrived on a Monday.
Inside were six items.
A copy of the founder agreement.
Gerald’s handwritten notes.
A draft share certificate.
Not the signed original.
Maria’s shoulders fell.
Sofia continued.
“Keep going.”
Item four:
A letter from Gerald to Anna dated August 1998.
Anna,
You are correct that David cannot sell what he does not solely own.
I have advised him that your founder interest remains unresolved unless you execute a genuine transfer.
Maria stared.
Item five:
A letter from David to Gerald.
Find a way to close the financing now. Anna can be fixed later.
David closed his eyes when shown the copy.
“I wrote that.”
Maria said nothing.
Item six was an audiocassette.
Gerald had dictated file notes.
The recording was digitized professionally.
His voice filled Sofia’s conference room.
“August nineteenth, 1998. Stone matter. Anna refuses sale at one point eight million. David instructs closing to proceed.”
Maria’s hands began to shake.
Gerald continued.
“I advised that founder interest should remain subject to Anna claim. David says company cannot survive delay.”
David stared at the floor.
Then:
“AM Culinary entity used to receive allocated buyout funds pending resolution. Beneficial owner temporarily David Stone. Funds should not be treated as payment to Anna unless later transferred.”
Maria whispered, “There.”
The 1998 payment had never bought Anna out.
Even David’s own lawyer had recorded that.
Sofia said, “This is extremely strong evidence. We still need authentication and admissibility foundations.”
Maria almost laughed.
“Of course.”
Then came the final sentence.
“Signed Certificate Two remains with Anna pending stock-book correction.”
Everyone froze.
Maria looked at David.
“Mom had the original?”
“That’s what he says.”
Maria searched every known box from Anna’s apartment.
Nothing.
Then she remembered the notebook.
Not the pages.
The cover.
The folded founder agreement had slipped from the damaged back cover.
Could there have been more?
The conservator examined it again.
The back board had two layers.
Fire had separated them.
Inside was a rectangular empty impression.
Exactly the dimensions of a stock certificate.
Something had been stored there.
But it was gone.
Maria stared.
“Rebecca.”
Sofia did not answer.
Maria continued.
“She knew the back cover mattered.”
Leo pulled up the live footage.
Rebecca’s whisper:
If the back cover survived, we have a much bigger problem.
Maria’s pulse quickened.
The founder agreement had survived.
But perhaps Rebecca expected something else in the cover.
The stock certificate.
“Did it fall out on set?”
Leo reviewed all camera angles frame by frame.
Pages.
Ash.
The folded founder agreement.
No certificate.
Then Camera Two captured something.
Before Rebecca threw the notebook into the pan, she opened the back cover for less than two seconds.
Her hand moved.
A pale rectangular sheet disappeared beneath her chef’s jacket.
Maria stood.
“She took it.”
Leo zoomed carefully.
The image could not reveal writing.
But it clearly showed Rebecca removing a document before burning the notebook.
Sofia immediately contacted Rebecca’s counsel and demanded preservation and production.
Their response arrived two hours later.
Rebecca denied possessing any certificate.
Maria stared at the denial.
Leo said, “She took something.”
“Yes.”
“What if she destroyed it?”
Maria looked at the screen.
Then at the court’s preservation order, entered after the broadcast.
If Rebecca destroyed the certificate later, she had done so while litigation was reasonably foreseeable and, depending on timing, after formal preservation obligations attached.
May you like
The burned notebook had been reckless.
Destroying the certificate afterward could be something much worse.
