Vanessa's eyes dropped to the floor. Derek noticed.
"But you did," he said slowly.
"I found references. Not the full picture."
"When?"
Silence answered first. Then: "Last month."
"You've known for a month," Derek said, "and you said nothing?"
"I didn't ask you to dig into Claire's family," he added.
"No," Vanessa snapped, some real emotion finally breaking through. "You asked me to make sure nothing complicated today. You said Kingsley was the last puzzle piece — if they came in, everyone else follows. You said we couldn't afford surprises. So I looked. Old filings. Archived cap tables. Research grants. I found the Ashford name. Then I found Claire's full name attached to a trust reference."
"You knew before the divorce meeting," I said.
She didn't answer.
"You sat there laughing," I said quietly, "knowing I might actually matter to this company. And you still laughed."
Her mouth opened. Nothing defensible came out.
