Chapter 8 - Project Sunset Targeted More Workers
Project Sunset was larger than Emily.
Investigators recovered internal Northline documents showing a campaign
to destabilize Harbor House before Charles Cole’s proposed investment.
Employees who resisted policy changes were targeted with complaints.
Managers were pressured through negative reviews.
A food-safety rumor had been seeded at another location.
The goal was to reduce the company’s valuation and weaken Evelyn’s
control.
Emily’s trust clause created an additional opportunity.
If she could be disqualified from voting for five years, Charles’s path
became easier.
Five workers had been targeted.
Emily was simply the final and most important one.
She asked Evelyn to bring the others back into the conversation.
One had found another job and wanted nothing to do with Harbor House.
One agreed to return.
Two wanted compensation.
The fired bartender, Luis Mendoza, wanted his personnel record
corrected.
Emily supported all of them.
“This can’t become a story where I’m the only person who mattered
because I owned shares.”
Evelyn nodded.
She understood.
Harbor House hired independent counsel for affected employees.
False disciplinary records were removed.
Back pay was reviewed where appropriate.
Then another problem surfaced.
Evelyn herself had made decisions that helped the scheme.
She knew complaints were clustering around the Cole negotiations.
She told managers to avoid confrontation because she feared losing
investors.
That caution left workers exposed.
Emily confronted her.
“You knew something was wrong.”
“I knew something felt wrong.”
“And you waited.”
“Yes.”
Evelyn did not defend herself.
“I was trying to protect the company.”
Emily almost laughed.
Everyone seemed to use that sentence.
Protect the company.
Protect the deal.
Protect the family.
Protect the reputation.
Protection became dangerous when the person being “protected” never got
a voice.
Evelyn commissioned a review of her own decisions.
Then she offered Emily a board seat effective when the trust activated.
Emily did not accept immediately.
She had one condition.
The workers targeted by Project Sunset needed an independent channel to
report misconduct directly to the board.
Evelyn agreed.
For the first time, Emily began thinking about what her mother’s shares
actually meant.
May you like
Not wealth.
A vote.
