Chapter 5
Forty minutes after security removed me from the site, I returned to Vale Studio.
Red marks still circled my wrist.
The lobby was being cleaned up too.
Two installers stood at the company-history wall. One had just removed a brass plaque.
I walked closer.
[EVELYN HART - CO-FOUNDER]
Four pale screw holes remained behind it.
Beside them, a new plaque had already been installed.
[ADRIAN VALE - FOUNDER / PRINCIPAL ARCHITECT]
The receptionist saw me and stiffened.
"Richard wants everything changed before the investors arrive."
She handed me the new brochure.
[ADRIAN VALE - Founder / Principal Architect]
[EVELYN HART - Chief Designer]
The company history began:
[Founded fifteen years ago by Adrian Vale in a one-room studio.]
I remembered that room.
I bought the folding table.
I covered the leaking window with plastic.
My design earned the first fee that kept the company alive.
Now even the years we had been broke together belonged to Adrian alone.
Richard's office door was open.
The original incorporation papers were already on his desk.
Founder had always listed Adrian.
My name appeared below.
[Design Director.]
During our first financing round, we had maybe two months of payroll left. I had asked why Adrian stood alone under Founder.
Richard smiled.
"You two will be married soon. Once you're family, what difference does it make?"
Under the table, Adrian squeezed my knee.
"Dad's right. We'll fix the boring paperwork later."
So I signed.
Now Richard closed the file.
"Co-Founder was never a legal position. When the firm was small, keeping the informal title did no harm. Institutional capital changes that."
The door opened.
Adrian walked in.
Richard asked only, "We're proceeding with the approved version?"
"Yes."
No hesitation.
I pushed the brochure toward him.
"Change it back."
"No."
"That's fifteen years..."
"We have an investor meeting at two."
He cut me off.
"If you can't work under the current management structure, I'll put someone else in your seat."
Through the glass wall, my team was already preparing the model.
Mara held the materials. Two junior designers checked drawings.
Adrian had thrown me off the site less than an hour earlier.
Now he had removed me from the firm's history.
At two, I still walked into the meeting.
No one said Co-Founder.
As if the word had never existed.
After four, I crossed the lobby again.
The installers were packing up.
One carried a clear plastic bag toward storage.
Inside were the brass letters they had removed.
[CO-FOUNDER]
My phone rang.
Margaret.
I let it go.
Ten seconds later, she left a voicemail.
[Come for tea tomorrow afternoon, darling.]
A pause.
[There are some things concerning the wedding that we need to deal with.]