Silence fell over the room, heavy and suffocating.
Sarah Vance, having finally emerged from the restroom with damp paper towels pressed to her forehead, raised a trembling hand. “Martin… there’s something else.”
“What?!” he snapped.
“I… I looked at the logistics master lease for the central distribution hubs this morning after you left the room,” she whispered. “The warehouses in Chicago, Savannah, and Dallas… they aren’t owned by Tennant Logistics.”
Martin stared at her, his bloodshot eyes wide. “What are they owned by?”
“A private holding entity called CT Holdings LLC,” Sarah swallowed hard. “We’ve been paying them a monthly lease of four hundred thousand dollars for the last twelve years. I called the registry to check who the principal shareholder of CT Holdings is…”
“And?”
“It’s Clara,” Sarah breathed. “She bought the land during the 2008 crash with her personal inheritance to keep the company from going under during the liquidity crunch. We’ve been renting our own loading docks from her for over a decade at a below-market rate because she didn’t want the board to panic.”
