Chapter 74: Pippa’s Schedule
Pippa’s schedule contained no stolen history, only work I wished she had begun before my marriage ended.
On Monday afternoon, PageTurn opened a permission-limited verification screen in North Quay's separate compliance room.
I received exactly two things: the successor exclusion and the approved public contribution summary due for release.
I did not receive Larkspur's manuscript, commercial figures, payment terms, internal redlines or private contract.
Pippa's verified role read LEAD WRITER / BRAND EDITOR.
Oliver's verified role read CO-CREATOR / PERFORMER.
The underlying contribution schedule belonged entirely to their project and had been signed through their own separate solicitors.
PageTurn confirmed the stated roles against delivery and public production records without showing me the underlying creative text.
The exclusion appeared in full because my shared pen-name rights required that boundary.
NO SUCCESSOR STATUS, NO MARIAN CROWE DUTIES OR RIGHTS.
It prevented Pippa's real job title from becoming a disguised inheritance of the shared old brand.
It also prevented the old brand from demanding promotional, editorial or creative work from her in future.
The signed schedule credited real, accountable new-project labour without adding one line of old-series contribution.
I marked the exclusion factually consistent with the shared licence.
That narrow confirmation was not approval of their private bargain, payment split or authorship of their schedule.
My solicitor recorded the narrow basis for my confirmation.
The controlled public author-page preview opened beside the exclusion with a planned 18:00 publication time.
It named Pippa first as lead writer and brand editor for the separate Midnight at Larkspur project.
It named Oliver accurately as co-creator and performer rather than proprietor of her work.
Neither line mentioned Marian Crowe, Blackwater or a next generation.
Pippa had supplied a short statement for the page.
“I am continuing this project because I wrote it,” it began.
The next sentence refused to let Oliver or an old pen name define her professional identity.
It did not deny Oliver's credited contribution or rewrite when their private relationship began.
The concise statement described work, professional responsibility and future boundaries without inviting private commentary.
I approved only that it made no claim against the shared licence.
PageTurn's verifier logged the public fields separately from their confidential schedule.
North Quay's new-project team stored the complete signed schedule behind its own restricted commercial permissions.
The old-rights administrator received only the exclusion and public summary.
That office did not inspect the manuscript, negotiate their money or approve creative choices.
No workflow, final-dialogue approval or insertion clause entered the public summary I received.
I could not learn from the screen who could insert or approve dialogue after Pippa's draft.
Those delivery controls remained inside their private contract and PageTurn's separate verification process.
My narrow shared-name review gave me no authority to investigate, rewrite or veto them.
At 17:43, Oliver's solicitor confirmed the public summary matched the signed roles.
Pippa's solicitor confirmed the successor exclusion without supplying any private clause.
My own confirmation remained limited to old-name consistency.
The page therefore had three separately preserved sources rather than one convenient joint story supplied by Oliver.
I had wanted Pippa's public identity removed when I first saw her on the stage.
Public accuracy required something narrower, less comforting and professionally harder for me.
Her wrong place in my old work had to disappear.
Her real place in her new work had to become visible.
At 18:00, the public author page replaced the previous provisional wording.
Its version record retained the old page and reason for correction.
The final display carried no successor label and no Marian Crowe benefit.
It gave Pippa a clearer professional identity than the scandal had allowed.
I closed the limited screen without requesting any hidden attachment.
North Quay then opened a notice from its old-books finance team.
At nine on Tuesday, it would issue the first quarterly royalty statement since the deadlock.
The six old books were about to show whether frozen rights had frozen anyone's money.