Chapter 124: Sell Through, Then Stop
The name would leave the last mug by date or by sale, whichever reached it first.
On Tuesday, the merchandise schedule occupied the only open window in the contract room.
The verified baseline sat at the top: eighty-seven mugs and two hundred canvas bags.
The replenishment codes remained sealed.
Oliver's solicitor asked for ninety days of ordinary sale.
Mine asked why a six-week forecast required thirteen weeks of permission.
The warehouse supervisor attended remotely to answer stock questions, not negotiate rights. Her access closed whenever the solicitors discussed licence wording.
She confirmed that passive sales had varied enough for the estimate to remain an estimate.
Returns might arrive after a product appeared sold out. The weekly report therefore had to distinguish a temporary zero from final exhaustion.
That uncertainty needed a disposal rule, not an endless extension.
I proposed 30 April 2026 as the final outside date.
If every unit sold earlier, permission ended on the earlier sell-out timestamp.
Returned units arriving before the date could re-enter the same fixed pool, but the baseline could never rise above verified saleable stock less completed sales.
Returns arriving afterwards could not be put back on sale under the name.
Oliver's solicitor asked whether existing product pages could remain searchable.
They could remain available only to complete the limited sell-through.
No new advertising, featured placement, discount campaign or email could promote them. Existing pages could not be redesigned to imitate a launch.
No bundle could attach them to either new book.
No photograph from the old merchandise could advertise a future project.
The warehouse would report aggregate units weekly to both solicitors, using one automatically generated file and the original item codes.
It would not disclose buyer names or use purchases to build a marketing list.
Oliver's solicitor asked what happened to stock left on 30 April.
I would not pay to smash useful bags and cups for symbolism.
The supervisor confirmed the print could be permanently removed by an approved contractor whose completion note would record usable, recycled and rejected quantities.
Any item damaged during de-branding would enter ordinary recycling.
Usable unbranded items would go to a local community-goods charity selected under North Quay's procurement rules.
The donation could not mention Marian Crowe or either author.
No tax or publicity credit would be claimed personally by Oliver or me.
My solicitor inserted the earlier-of formula in bold.
Oliver's solicitor changed ninety days to 30 April.
I accepted existing passive pages until the permission ended.
He accepted no restock, no fresh advertising and no new bundle.
The warehouse controller ran the wording against both locked stock codes and the current product-page permissions.
The schedule could not generate a purchase order or reopen an advertising asset.
It could only reduce the verified count.
At 14.07, both sides approved the merchandise wording through their solicitors.
The neutral contract administrator removed the sole unresolved-item flag.
The signature package returned to its preparation queue.
The storage charge would stop when the stock sold out or moved for de-branding.
Until then, I accepted the old name remaining on a finite number of objects.
That was not the clean photograph of retirement I might have preferred.
It was an exit with an auditable last day.
The supervisor resealed the baseline record beside the no-replenishment certificate.
The final disposal instructions went to the warehouse and contract archive separately, so a sales-page error could not rewrite the deed.
No one could extend the date by calling a returned mug new inventory.
As the merchandise window closed, the administrator opened the next annex query.
Oliver had approved the deadline.
He wanted the credits for the existing live recordings moved from a website footnote into the signed schedules.
Twenty-seven masters carried his voice.
The retirement deed now had to say exactly how long each one could keep it.