Chapter 7 - What Mason Watched
Mason denied everything.
“My credentials are used by IT.”
Ethan shook his head.
“Not from that device.”
“What device?”
“Your phone.”
The board meeting became a battlefield.
Mason sat at the conference table.
Adrian appeared by video because his temporary leave still prohibited unscheduled entry into headquarters.
Paula Finch placed Ethan’s report on the table.
“Mason, your phone accessed Dock Camera 4 forty-eight hours before the incident.”
“I review marina operations.”
“At 1:17 in the morning?”
“I work late.”
“You watched thirty-six seconds of an empty waste bay.”
Mason’s jaw tightened.
Adrian spoke.
“You were checking the camera angle.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Then explain it.”
Mason leaned toward the screen.
“Explain why you beat your wife.”
The room went silent.
Adrian felt the old heat rise.
Then he forced it down.
“That is being handled in court.”
Mason smiled faintly.
Adrian continued.
“This meeting is about corporate fraud.”
The smile disappeared.
Paula noticed.
So did Adrian.
Another small victory.
The board voted five to two to resume the independent audit.
Mason remained acting CEO but lost authority to interfere with evidence preservation.
That evening Claire filed a new affidavit in family court.
She claimed Harbor Meridian was Adrian’s own “secret slush fund” and that he was manufacturing allegations against her to retaliate over the custody dispute.
She attached photographs of Adrian signing blank authorization pages at home.
They were real.
Adrian remembered.
Months earlier Claire had brought him a stack of marina charity-event documents while he was feeding Noah.
“You signed blank pages?” Naomi asked.
“Signature pages. I trusted her.”
Naomi stared at him.
“You are making my job extremely difficult.”
“I know.”
Claire had photographs showing his hand holding the pen.
In court, Elise argued that Adrian’s claims of forgery were false.
“He now wishes to blame his wife for documents he willingly executed.”
Samuel Pike compared the pages.
Some signatures might indeed have originated from those blank pages and later been attached to different documents.
Fraud by misuse rather than literal forgery.
It made the scheme harder to explain publicly.
But easier to prove if they found the source files.
Rosa remembered something.
“The silver flash drive.”
Adrian looked up.
“The one Claire removed from the security alcove?”
“No. She carried it into the alcove.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
“What happened to it?”
Nobody knew.
Police had not recovered it.
Claire had been searched only superficially before being transported from the scene because she was treated as an assault victim.
She could have taken it.
Detective Holt obtained a warrant for devices, but Claire’s attorney challenged portions of the search.
The flash drive remained missing.
Then Noah’s pediatrician called child services.
Claire had canceled two routine appointments.
One was for the morning after the marina incident.
The other had been scheduled three months earlier.
The dates seemed unimportant until Naomi compared them with Claire’s travel records.
On both canceled appointment days, Claire had flown to California.
To Montecito.
Adrian stared at the itinerary.
“She went there while pregnant too.”
Samuel Pike nodded.
“Six trips.”
“With Mason?”
“On two.”
Adrian looked away.
Rosa understood before anyone said it.
“Oh.”
Naomi asked, “Were they having an affair?”
Adrian’s voice was flat.
“I don’t know.”
It should have devastated him.
Instead, compared with Noah beneath a tarp, infidelity felt almost ordinary.
They confirmed the affair through hotel records Mason had charged to a personal card and Claire’s calendar messages recovered from a shared household tablet.
It had begun ten months before Noah’s birth.
No paternity uncertainty emerged; medical records placed the affair well after Claire was already pregnant.
That mattered to Adrian more than he admitted.
He stared at a message between Claire and Mason.
C: He suspects nothing.
M: He suspects what you let him suspect.
Another:
C: When this is over, I want the coast.
M: Then make him give you a reason.
Adrian read it twice.
Naomi said quietly, “That may refer to divorce leverage.”
Rosa’s face hardened.
“It may refer to the camera.”
A third message appeared.
Dated six days before the marina incident.
C: Rosa saw too much.
M: Then she becomes unreliable.
C: I have an idea.
Adrian stopped scrolling.
Below it was Mason’s reply.
Make sure you can live with it.
Claire had answered:
I can live with anything if Noah and I are free.
Adrian felt something inside him collapse.
May you like
Not because she wanted freedom.
Because she had written Noah’s name beside a plan that used him as a weapon.
