Chapter 10: The Last Thing Daniel Said
Daniel looked smaller in Grace's conference room than he had ever looked anywhere else.
His attorney — a careful man named Sorensen who had clearly been briefed on the phone's contents during the recess — sat beside him with the expression of someone doing complex arithmetic in real time.
I sat across from them.
Grace was to my left.
Theo had sent the authenticated recording files to the federal team forty minutes earlier.
"The cooperation agreement," Sorensen said.
"My client is prepared to provide full testimony regarding Warren Pryce's involvement, the shell company structure, and Gerald Ashworth's role in directing the fraud.
In exchange—"
"We've seen the photograph," Grace said.
"The one taken four days ago.
The document with Ms.
Sterling's forged signature authorizing the stock transfer."
Sorensen stopped.
Daniel looked at the table.
"That changes the scope of what we're discussing," Grace continued.
"The original fraud is one matter.
A forged authorization for a thirty-percent voting stock transfer — that's a separate and significantly more serious charge."
"My client was not the one who forged that signature," Sorensen said.
"Warren forged it," Daniel said.
He didn't look up.
"I was there when he did it.
That's what the photograph shows — he'd just finished signing it and he wanted a record of the meeting.
He took the photo himself."
"Why?" I asked.
Daniel looked up then.
He looked at me directly for the first time since I'd walked in.
"Because he didn't trust me," he said.
"He wanted documentation that I was present.
That I'd agreed.
So that if anything went wrong, we were both in it." He paused.
"Warren trusted no one.
That was the thing about him.
He built everything on mutual exposure.
Everyone who worked with him had something to lose."
"Except my mother," I said.
Daniel's jaw tightened.
"Your mother was the only person he was actually afraid of.
He told me that once.
He said Eleanor Sterling was the only person he'd ever worked with who could have stopped him if she'd chosen to." He looked at the table again.
"He said it like a compliment."
The room was quiet.
"Daniel," I said.
"The recordings on the phone.
Ashworth's voice.
The transfer schedules, the account numbers, the instruction about what to do if I became a problem.
Did you record those yourself?"
"Some of them.
Warren recorded others and I copied them.
I told you — insurance." He looked at his hands.
"I didn't plan for it to go this far.
I thought it was going to be a clean exit.
Take the money, take the documents from the safe so you couldn't trace the accounts immediately, and be out of the country before anyone started looking." He paused.
"I didn't know Warren was planning the stock transfer.
He told me about it the night before I left.
He said it was the final piece — that once the transfer went through, Ashworth would have effective control and the accounts wouldn't matter anymore because Sterling would belong to them."
"And you left anyway," I said.
"I left anyway." He said it without defense.
Just the fact of it.
"I told myself it wasn't my problem anymore."
Sorensen put a hand on Daniel's arm.
"My client is prepared to provide full cooperation—"
"I know," Grace said.
She opened a folder.
"Here's what cooperation looks like.
Full testimony on Warren, Ashworth, the shell companies, and the stock transfer scheme.
You will be present and available for every federal proceeding.
You will surrender your passport.
You will return every item removed from the Sterling property." She looked at Daniel.
"Every item."
Daniel nodded once.
"There's one more thing," I said.
He looked at me.
"The tea," I said.
"The night you left.
What was in it?"
He was quiet for a long moment.
"A sedative.
Something Warren gave me.
He said it was mild — that it would make you sleep deeply for a few hours and you wouldn't remember anything unusual." He paused.
"I almost didn't use it.
I stood in the kitchen for a long time before I put it in."
"But you did."
"Yes." He didn't look away.
"I did."
I looked at him — this man I had shared a house with for six years, who had kissed my forehead and whispered *poor Audrey* while I lay there pretending to sleep.
"Thank you for being honest about that," I said.
He blinked.
It was not the response he had expected.
I stood up.
Grace would handle the rest.
The federal team had the recordings.
The SEC had the files Marcus had sent.
Sorensen would spend the next several weeks negotiating the exact shape of Daniel's cooperation, and Daniel would spend the next several years living inside the consequences of a plan that had felt, four days ago, like a clean exit.
I picked up my bag.
"Audrey." Daniel's voice stopped me at the door.
I turned.
"The company," he said.
"Sterling Global.
Your mother built something real.
I want you to know that I—" He stopped.
Started again.
"I knew that.
I always knew that."
I looked at him for a moment.
"I know you did," I said.
May you like
"That's what made it worse."
I walked out.
