Chapter 11: The Meeting With Four Chairs
There were four chairs in the contract room and not one of them belonged to Marian Crowe.
The name appeared only on the folder in the centre, embossed in silver as though paper could still make four people behave like one.
After all four accepted a same-day reschedule, the administrator placed the contribution table between us at 13:00, twenty-one hours earlier than Tuesday’s original appointment.
Mine faced Oliver’s. Pippa sat beside him. The administrator took the fourth beneath the wall clock.
A red recording light came on, reflected in Oliver’s water glass and the polished buckle of Pippa’s visitor pass.
The table carried the same version to every screen.
I had arrived early and asked to see Oliver’s corrections before the others entered.
“Everyone sees each change together,” the administrator said.
I put my hoped-for advantage back in my handbag with my phone and kept both hands visible on the table.
Oliver arrived carrying a six-page narrative statement headed CONTINUITY, with Pippa’s name already typeset beneath his in matching capitals.
The administrator set it aside and opened the live wording block.
Only Pippa’s role remained active on this page.
The verified line read: NO RECORDED ROLE IN EXISTING BLACKWATER WORKS OR QUARANTINED PACKAGE.
Oliver uncapped his pen.
“Replace that with not yet added.”
The phrase appeared in red beneath the original.
Pippa reached across him for the stylus.
She drew one line through NOT YET ADDED, slowly enough for the stylus cursor to follow every letter.
Then she restored NO RECORDED ROLE.
The screen saved her edit under her own account.
Oliver turned towards her.
“Why narrow your position before we settle the future?”
“Because this line covers work already made and a package already uploaded,” she said.
She kept the stylus in her hand.
The woman who had entered my marriage had just removed herself from my old books.
The accuracy gave me relief and grief in equal measure. It protected my work while reminding me that professional honesty could coexist with private betrayal.
Six pages of earlier contribution findings remained folded behind the live block, already linked to their source records.
The administrator asked Pippa to confirm the two affected folders.
She selected EXISTING SERIES.
She selected FINAL-VOLUME QUARANTINE.
Both changed from REVIEWING WORDING to FACT CONFIRMED.
Oliver tapped his continuity statement against the table.
“This makes her invisible.”
“It makes my current role accurate,” Pippa replied.
Her answer left future work available under a fresh project and her own name, which was a smaller promise than succession and a more credible one.
The administrator typed that route into the action column.
NEW WORK — SEPARATE PROJECT RECORD, ORIGINAL MATERIAL, SEPARATE CONTRACT, AND CREDIT UNDER THE PEOPLE WHO CREATED IT.
I initialled the line.
Pippa initialled beside me.
Oliver added his initials after a pause long enough for the clock’s second hand to cross the twelve.
I asked whether a fresh project could carry Blackwater characters through the same route.
“Protected elements require their own rights review,” the administrator said, turning the Blackwater folder sideways so its closed edge faced all of us.
The new-project line therefore opened a clean door rather than a side entrance into the old world.
Pippa slid the stylus back to the centre of the table.
The administrator generated the meeting draft while we watched our edits settle into black type and the red revision marks disappear one by one.
Each factual correction would return to all four screens during the next twenty-four hours.
A second reviewer would then store the final minutes in North Quay’s contract archive.
Oliver initialled six pages, including Pippa’s restored wording.
The seventh page addressed future use of Marian Crowe.
He wrote FUTURE STATUS RESERVED in its margin.
The administrator retained his phrase as a disputed proposal.
At the centre of the page, one short finding awaited his initials.
Oliver refused the three words that would end his public promise: NO SUCCESSOR APPOINTED.