Chapter 80 - The Door to the Boardroom
Independent counsel briefed the Moretti board about preliminary findings without announcing guilt. The audit committee's earlier work had been compromised by conflicts that required additional review. Access controls had been inadequate. Certain consulting invoices demanded further substantiation.
The company paused the offering timetable formally. Adrian publicly supported the pause instead of framing it as defeat.
In an interview, a commentator described him as diminished. I watched a clip while folding laundry and found I didn't care.
Diminished compared with what? A man who could make any room silent by entering it? A man whose wife had learned to speak more freely only after she left?
Adrian called that night. “The board asked me to step back from the special committee's work entirely.”
“Will you?”
“I already have.”
“And Leo?”
“He asked me if I could come next weekend. I said yes.”
“Make sure you can.”
May you like
There was a long pause. “I will.”
For once, the most consequential sentence in his day had nothing to do with a billion-dollar valuation.
