Chapter 5 - The $680 Million Deadline
Derek Sloan walked into Hart Hospitality’s boardroom like a man who still believed he controlled the room.
Eleven directors were seated.
Evelyn sat at the head.
Adrian sat three chairs away with an attorney behind him.
Derek placed a leather folder on the table.
“Our senior lender has given us until six p.m. tomorrow.”
Evelyn did not open the folder.
“For what?”
“Confirmation that Hart Square remains under exclusivity.”
“It doesn’t.”
“You cannot unilaterally terminate without cause.”
“I have cause.”
Derek smiled.
“An old tape?”
Adrian looked sharply at him.
Evelyn noticed.
“You know about the tape.”
“I know rumors are circulating.”
“From whom?”
Derek ignored the question.
“The current redevelopment has nothing to do with events from 1995.”
Naomi Feld spoke.
“The title chain may disagree.”
Derek’s expression changed slightly.
Naomi continued.
“Harbor Meridian Development’s historical property interests appear connected to entities named in Henry Hart’s recording.”
A board member leaned forward.
“What property interests?”
Naomi displayed a chart.
In 1996, months after Henry disappeared, Hart Hospitality granted Harbor Meridian a twenty-five-year option over parcels surrounding the original Hart Grand.
That option was later modified.
Extended.
Transferred.
And eventually became the foundation for Derek’s redevelopment structure.
Evelyn looked at Adrian.
“You signed the original option.”
Adrian said nothing.
Derek spoke.
“He was an authorized officer.”
“My father had disappeared.”
“Exactly. The company needed continuity.”
“You benefited from my father being gone.”
Derek laughed softly.
“My father was CFO. He maintained stability during a crisis.”
Martha’s accusation echoed in Evelyn’s head.
He helped steal from it.
One director, Patricia Wynn, asked, “What happens if we terminate the current redevelopment?”
Derek answered immediately.
“Potentially sixty-four million dollars in break costs, litigation, lender claims, and loss of the $680 million capital package.”
Silence.
Money changed the temperature of every room.
Evelyn knew it.
Derek knew it better.
He leaned forward.
“This company has twenty-eight thousand employees. We are discussing a project expected to create more than two thousand jobs.”
Evelyn said, “Don’t hide behind employees.”
Derek looked at her.
“This from the woman freezing their project over a thirty-one-year-old family mystery?”
Adrian finally spoke.
“He has a point.”
Evelyn turned slowly.
“You should not be voting on anything.”
“Why?”
“You were recorded admitting involvement in unauthorized transfers.”
“I was twenty-two.”
“You concealed it for thirty-one years.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Our father was impossible.”
Evelyn stared.
“That is your defense?”
“He treated mistakes like moral failures.”
“You forged checks.”
Adrian looked shocked.
Derek’s eyes shifted.
Evelyn saw it.
“You knew that too.”
Derek replied, “I know many things.”
The phrase chilled her.
Naomi said, “This meeting is adjourned pending independent review.”
Derek remained seated.
“Before you adjourn, understand something.”
He slid another document forward.
A financing covenant.
“If Hart Hospitality publicly impairs the redevelopment without documented contractual cause, the lender can demand reimbursement of advanced project costs.”
“How much?”
“Twenty-one million immediately.”
One director cursed under his breath.
Derek continued.
“Within forty-eight hours.”
Evelyn looked around.
Several directors were no longer looking at her as a grieving daughter.
They were looking at financial exposure.
Derek saw the shift.
Power returned to his voice.
“You want to investigate 1995? Investigate.”
He stood.
“But the future does not stop while you interrogate the past.”
After the meeting, Derek found Martha outside Naomi’s office.
She was carrying a grocery bag.
“Mrs. Ellis.”
Martha stopped.
“Mr. Sloan.”
He smiled.
“I owe you an apology.”
“For which part?”
His smile faded.
“The parking lot.”
“You mean destroying my food?”
“Yes.”
“Or calling me garbage?”
“I never called you garbage.”
“You said get this garbage out of my way while you were kicking the things I sell to eat.”
Derek looked around.
“We don’t need an audience.”
“I spent thirty-one years being afraid of private conversations.”
He studied her.
“You are smarter than you look.”
Martha smiled sadly.
“And you’re exactly as cruel as you look.”
Derek’s eyes hardened.
Then he handed her a card.
“Two million dollars.”
Martha stared at him.
“For what?”
“Your key. The original letter. Any copies.”
“You’re bribing me?”
“I’m buying personal property.”
“Why would an old key be worth two million dollars?”
Derek leaned closer.
“Because Evelyn is using you.”
Martha laughed softly.
“You think everyone has a price because you do.”
“Everyone has a price.”
“My husband used to say people who believe that usually haven’t met enough poor people.”
Derek’s jaw tightened.
“You live in a one-bedroom apartment. You sell vegetables in a parking lot. Your Social Security check barely covers rent.”
Martha’s face changed.
“How do you know that?”
Derek realized he had revealed too much.
She stepped backward.
“You investigated me.”
“I protect my business.”
“You knew who I was before Friday.”
“No.”
Martha stared at him.
Then reached into her handbag.
Her phone screen was lit.
Recording.
Derek went pale.
Rhode Island law generally allowed a participant to record a conversation.
Martha smiled.
“Two million dollars for an old key.”
Derek grabbed for the phone.
She stepped away.
Security rounded the corner.
Derek stopped.
Martha looked at him.
“Your father frightened me when I was thirty-three.”
She slipped the phone into her bag.
“You’ll have to try harder.”
That evening Naomi reviewed the recording.
It did not prove Derek’s involvement in the old conspiracy.
But it proved something useful.
He desperately wanted Martha’s evidence.
Then Evelyn received another discovery.
Derek had ordered a private background investigation on Martha four months earlier.
Four months before the parking lot confrontation.
May you like
He had known exactly who she was.
And he had pretended otherwise.
