Chapter 16 - Forty Million
The offer looked legitimate.
That was what made it dangerous.
Forty million dollars for two restaurant properties Bennett Table Group had purchased for a combined fourteen million over the previous seven years.
A buyer would allow Maya to keep operating under fifteen-year leases.
A normal founder might celebrate.
Maya called Priya.
“This is bait.”
“Probably.”
“Can we prove it?”
“Not yet.”
Maya paced her office.
“If the properties are potentially worth sixty or eighty million after redevelopment approval, they're offering enough to make me look irrational for refusing.”
“Correct.”
“And if I accept?”
“You receive forty million and become a tenant.”
“Under a landlord controlled by Evan.”
“Apparently.”
“So eventually all five restaurants sit on property he controls.”
“Yes.”
Maya stopped.
“He wants the company without buying the company.”
Priya nodded through the screen.
“Control the real estate, control much of the operating leverage.”
Maya looked at the offer.
“Why twenty-four hours?”
“Pressure.”
“No. Why now?”
Priya understood.
“Something is about to change.”
Maya called Richard Vale.
“Is the transit announcement coming?”
“I don't know.”
“Find out legally.”
Richard laughed.
“Thank you for the qualifier.”
“I mean it.”
“So do I.”
Meanwhile Rachel met Eleanor and Natalie.
Eleanor had spent the morning reading Charles's notebook.
Every page made her angrier at both sons.
One biological.
One by marriage.
“Charles knew Colin was becoming reckless,” she said.
Rachel nodded.
“He also knew Evan encouraged him.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn't Dad tell me?”
Eleanor looked at her.
“Would you have listened?”
The question hurt.
Rachel answered honestly.
“Probably not.”
“You were happy.”
“I was comfortable.”
“There is a difference.”
Rachel smiled bitterly.
“Apparently today is difference day.”
Natalie placed financial records across the table.
“We traced the home-equity proceeds.”
Rachel sat straighter.
“Where?”
“Approximately $1.7 million ultimately reached HBR.”
Eleanor closed her eyes.
“My God.”
Natalie continued.
“Some transfers went through legitimate investment accounts, so we need forensic accounting before calling anything theft. But the pattern is concerning.”
Rachel looked at her mother.
“How much authority did you give Evan?”
“Too much.”
“No. Legally.”
Natalie answered.
“The representative authorization appears limited to refinancing existing company obligations. It does not obviously permit creating new debt solely to finance acquisitions.”
“So he exceeded it.”
“Possibly. We need corporate counsel.”
Eleanor looked at Rachel.
“I want him removed.”
“From what?”
“Everything.”
Natalie raised a hand.
“We do this carefully.”
Eleanor's eyes hardened.
“I spent forty-three years married to a man who built that company.”
“And if you want to protect it, you follow process.”
Eleanor disliked the answer.
She respected it.
Rachel's phone buzzed.
Maya.
“The offer expires tomorrow.”
“I know.”
“How?”
“Colin.”
Maya sighed.
“He's finally talking.”
“Yes.”
“Useful?”
“Painfully.”
Rachel explained HBR's funding.
Maya listened.
Then said,
“I want to accept.”
Rachel froze.
“What?”
“Not the deal.”
“Then what?”
“The meeting.”
“What meeting?”
“They requested an in-person response.”
Rachel understood slowly.
“You want Evan to think you're considering it.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because people under pressure reveal what they need.”
Rachel looked at Natalie.
Her attorney shook her head before Rachel asked.
“You are not conducting some television sting.”
Maya heard.
“I'm not.”
“What are you doing?” Natalie asked.
“Negotiating a commercial offer.”
“That is fine. Secretly entrapping people is not.”
“No traps.”
Maya smiled faintly.
“Just chairs and coffee.”
The meeting occurred the following afternoon in Bennett's private dining room.
The same room.
Evan arrived with Derek Sloan.
Rachel was not supposed to be there.
She sat in Maya's office watching through the restaurant's ordinary security cameras.
No secret microphones.
No illegal recording strategy.
The cameras covered entrances and public corridors, not the private room's audio.
Maya entered alone.
Evan smiled.
“You reconsidered.”
“I consider every serious offer.”
“Good.”
Derek opened a folder.
Maya looked at him.
They had never met.
He was fifty-three, narrow-faced, perfectly groomed.
The man who had once copied Charles Morgan's files now carried an acquisition package built partly from copied records.
“Mr. Sloan.”
“Maya.”
“You know a lot about me.”
“Publicly available information.”
She almost laughed.
“Of course.”
Evan leaned forward.
“Forty million is an exceptional offer.”
“For real estate you believe may soon be worth twice that?”
His expression did not change.
Derek's did.
Tiny.
Enough.
Maya saw it.
“You've been talking to Richard,” Evan said.
“Yes.”
“He is a bitter old man.”
“He says the same about you. Minus old.”
Evan ignored that.
“The redevelopment zone is speculation.”
“Then why forty million?”
“Because HBR values certainty.”
“So do I.”
Maya folded her hands.
“I'll sell.”
Evan's eyes sharpened.
Derek stopped breathing.
Maya continued.
“For eighty million.”
Evan laughed.
“No.”
“Then we agree the properties have strategic value.”
“We agree you're unrealistic.”
“Maybe.”
Maya leaned back.
“But I'm not desperate.”
Evan's smile faded.
“That can change.”
There it was.
Maya waited.
He realized the implication too late.
She spoke quietly.
“Is that why someone canceled my insurance payment?”
“I have no idea what you're talking about.”
“Lena does.”
Derek looked at Evan.
Second reaction.
Maya noticed.
“She gave the police your emails.”
Derek's face drained.
Evan did not move.
“What emails?”
“Interesting question.”
Maya stood.
Evan's voice hardened.
“Sit down.”
She looked at him.
He corrected himself.
“Please.”
Maya remained standing.
“You made an offer. I declined.”
“You said eighty.”
“I was checking whether forty was your ceiling.”
“And?”
“It isn't.”
Evan smiled coldly.
“You think you're clever.”
“No.”
Maya picked up the acquisition folder.
“I think you need these properties much more than I need your money.”
She handed the folder back.
“And desperate buyers overpay.”
Maya left.
In her office, Rachel stood from the monitor.
“He threatened you.”
“No.”
“He said desperation can change.”
“He implied pressure. That's different.”
Rachel shook her head.
“How are you this calm?”
Maya untied the apron she had worn during lunch service and hung it on a hook.
“Practice.”
Rachel stared at it.
The same white apron.
Maya caught her looking.
“What?”
Rachel lowered her eyes.
“Nothing.”
Then James rushed into the office.
“Maya.”
“What?”
“You need to see this.”
He handed her his phone.
A business news alert filled the screen.
CITY COUNCIL TO REVIEW CENTRAL TRANSIT REDEVELOPMENT PROPOSAL TOMORROW.
Maya looked at Rachel.
There was the deadline.
Evan's offer expired at five because the public redevelopment discussion began at six.
Once the proposal became public, Maya's land could become dramatically more valuable.
Rachel's phone immediately rang.
Colin.
She answered.
His voice was frantic.
“Evan just called an emergency Morrow Gate meeting.”
“So?”
“He wants another twenty million.”
“From whom?”
“The partners.”
“Why?”
“To increase Maya's offer.”
Rachel looked at Maya.
“How high?”
Colin hesitated.
“Sixty-five.”
Maya smiled.
Not because she intended to sell.
Because Evan had just confirmed exactly what the properties were worth to him.
Then Colin said something that erased her smile.
“There is another reason he's rushing.”
“What?”
“Hawthorne is reviewing the forged documents tomorrow.”
Rachel's pulse accelerated.
“So he's trying to close before the bank freezes him.”
“Yes.”
Maya looked toward the restaurant floor.
Evan had less than twenty-four hours.
Which meant the most dangerous stage of the scheme had begun.
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A cornered man with money, secrets and diminishing options did not become rational.
He became expensive.
