Chapter 40: Forty-Six Point Two
Forty-six point two bought me voices, not vindication.
On Monday, PageTurn opened the audited budget panel during the scheduled business-hour review. Both project teams received their notices simultaneously.
The original formula remained fixed beside the result. Its hash matched last night's frozen schedule.
SALTMERE COMPOSITE RETENTION — 46.2%.
MULTI-VOICE PROTOTYPE BAND — £8,000.
The amount was production money, not damages, prize money or an advance. Every pound required an approved prototype cost.
I read it twice before allowing myself to breathe. Forty-five per cent had been the higher-band line.
The opposing row opened through the equal-summary view.
LARKSPUR COMPOSITE RETENTION — 41.8%.
SINGLE-VOICE PROTOTYPE BAND — £4,000.
Their project had also passed its continuation threshold. The smaller budget changed format, not eligibility to continue.
Nobody had been eliminated. A difference of 4.4 points was not a moral ruling.
The headline already waiting in my coordinator's draft said GRACE BEATS HUSBAND'S MISTRESS. It erased Oliver's role and Pippa's actual writing in six words.
I deleted it before the review continued. The approved facts needed no marriage-shaped victory language.
Pippa's writing and Oliver's performance had earned a funded next stage. Their 41.8% remained visible in the shared result.
My higher composite score had earned a larger experiment.
Neither result rewrote my marriage or their roles.
The PageTurn analyst released the audit signatures and budget-band table. Invalid traffic and the cancelled old mailing remained excluded.
The platform retained raw reader data, scoring inputs and content review. Author teams received only their permitted reports and common result fields.
North Quay's new-project cost line received two approved summaries at the same level of detail.
It received 46.2 and 41.8, the corresponding test bands and no manuscripts. No blind-review score travelled with them.
It could begin separate paper-cost and production modelling. That work estimated possibilities rather than commissioning a book.
It could not change PageTurn's score.
It could not read the blind-review comments.
It had not acquired a print licence, option or paper-book contract. Any later offer still required thresholds and separate signatures.
Two North Quay notices appeared: COST DEVELOPMENT OPENED. Each referenced the same approved PageTurn summary format.
They were not offers.
The neutral old-rights administrator appeared only in a compliance footer.
OLD LISTS USED — ZERO.
That office had not judged content or allocated either budget. It had checked only that prohibited legacy resources remained unused.
PageTurn issued two independent production orders.
I opened only the Saltmere order. The opposing production order remained inaccessible beyond its public budget band.
It permitted a multi-voice prototype within an £8,000 ceiling.
Approved costs required invoices, delivery evidence and the same post-test audit. Voices, studio time and editing would compete inside one ceiling.
Overspend without prior approval would be mine.
Unspent money would return to the platform fund.
The Larkspur order remained outside my access.
Its public summary confirmed only the £4,000 single-voice band.
I signed the Saltmere order under GRACE ELLISON.
The platform sealed it separately from the retention report.
My budget changed from a number on a dashboard to people I would have to hire and direct. A higher band created more decisions, not free quality.
More voices meant more casting, scheduling and chances to spend badly. Missing the delivery would make the advantage measurable against me.
The producer joined my project panel after execution.
She placed a blank fifteen-minute timeline beneath the £8,000 ceiling.
“How much of the book can that buy?” I asked.
“Fifteen finished minutes if you keep the cast controlled.”
The complete mystery needed roughly twice that. Fifteen minutes could carry one decision cleanly or several fragments badly.
Every additional voice would reduce the time available for story.
The higher budget had not removed scarcity. It had purchased the right to choose where scarcity would hurt.
It had made the exclusions mine to choose.
The producer opened the cast worksheet.
“Decide who speaks,” she said, “and who disappears from the sample.”