Chapter 99: Celeste Blames Me
Celeste used the employee meeting to put every frightened person between us.
Sterling streamed the event from its main auditorium. She stood beneath the merger logo without the silver crown and spoke for twelve minutes before showing my photograph.
"My sister would rather destroy thousands of livelihoods than accept that the company moved forward without her."
The number was larger than Sterling's direct workforce. It included vendors, projected Northstar hires, and future positions that did not yet exist.
The fear in the room did not need an accurate count.
Celeste said I had pressured the Trust to suspend the license, embarrassed Northstar, and forced the market halt. She did not mention the complete-rights warranty or the board's forty-eight-hour refusal to correct it.
"We offered reconciliation," she said. "Evelyn chose revenge."
Conrad sat in the front row.
Nathan stood beside the stage.
Neither corrected her.
I watched from Rhea's office with the employee protection proposal open on the table. Two independent directors had circulated it overnight. Celeste's office rejected it before the meeting because independent payroll review and nonretaliation monitoring would "unreasonably limit executive discretion."
At the end of her speech, employees submitted questions through a moderated portal.
Would approved safety work continue?
Would anyone be dismissed for speaking to investigators?
What happened if Northstar walked away?
Celeste answered that confidence was the best protection and asked employees not to assist outside campaigns against Sterling.
Then one employee pasted the title of my proposal into the question box.
EMPLOYEE AND RESEARCH CONTINUITY PLAN.
The moderator removed it.
Rhea looked at me. "The plan contains no confidential transaction terms. The two directors who received it have authorized release of their cover request."
"Publish the plan, not a response to Celeste."
The document went live ten minutes after the meeting ended.
It proposed a ring-fenced review of existing cash for payroll and approved safety maintenance. It prohibited retaliation for truthful cooperation with authorized investigations. It offered independent placement assistance if programs had to shrink. It preserved health coverage during a defined review period if the board approved the reserve.
Every financial measure remained subject to verification of Sterling's available cash. The plan protected a process, not an imaginary balance sheet.
It did not guarantee that every job would survive.
It did not promise that the merger would close.
It did not require Sterling to give me a title.
The final section asked the board to separate transaction decisions from employee protection and to appoint an independent safety monitor while licensing remained suspended.
Messages from Sterling staff changed after they read it.
Some still blamed me. Some said the plan came too late. Others asked why Celeste had rejected protections while claiming only she cared about their jobs.
That was the question the document could support.
I did not claim to know what every employee needed.
I showed the path management had refused.
Celeste issued a response calling the plan an attempt to govern Sterling from outside. She was right about one thing: I was outside.
I had no board vote.
I could not fund payroll from company accounts.
I could not appoint the safety monitor.
Nine directors could.
Three requested an emergency resolution using most of the plan. Two more demanded an independent committee to examine the rights warranties and management's treatment of the correction notice.
Conrad tried to postpone the vote until Northstar completed its investigation.
The exchange refused to resume trading without a credible corrective process.
By six, the board meeting had been moved to the next morning.
Celeste ended the day with another message to employees.
CHOOSE THE PEOPLE WHO CHOOSE YOU.
Helena had warned me about that language too.
Loyalty was not a substitute for a safe process.
The next morning, nine directors would have to decide whether they believed otherwise.