Gerald's Retaliation
Chapter 09 - Gerald's Retaliation
Gerald's response to Isabelle's refusal arrived within days, not through his attorney, but through a considerably more public and calculated channel.
A story appeared in a regional business publication, sourced anonymously, painting Nathaniel's sudden return as a suspicious, potentially fraudulent claim to a company he had willingly abandoned years earlier, questioning his mental competency and suggesting his eight-year disappearance raised more questions about his own conduct than about Gerald's.
"He's trying to control the narrative before we can," Priya said, reviewing the article with Nathaniel and Isabelle the morning it published. "This is a common tactic in cases like this, particularly when the accused has considerable resources and public relations infrastructure already in place."
"Can we respond," Isabelle asked.
"Carefully," Priya said. "I don't want us fighting this in the press before the criminal case has fully developed. I want the formal charges, when they're filed, to speak considerably louder than any public statement either side makes beforehand."
Nathaniel, reading the article a second time, felt a specific, familiar fury rising in his chest, the same calculating cruelty he remembered from his son-in-law's early years in the company, now aimed directly at rewriting the story of his own survival into something suspicious rather than heroic.
"He's good at this," Nathaniel said grimly. "I'd nearly forgotten how good."
Two days later, a considerably more troubling development arrived, a formal legal filing from Gerald's team requesting an emergency competency evaluation for Nathaniel, citing his eight-year memory loss and unexplained absence as grounds for questioning his fitness to reclaim control of a major corporation.
"This is a delay tactic," Priya said, reviewing the filing with barely controlled frustration. "He's hoping to tie us up in competency proceedings long enough to buy time, potentially long enough to move or hide additional assets before the criminal investigation catches up to him."
"Will the court grant it," Isabelle asked.
"Possibly," Priya admitted. "Competency evaluations are taken seriously, particularly given the genuine, documented amnesia your father experienced. I want to be direct with you both. This could add months to the timeline."
Nathaniel absorbed that news with a grim, weary patience, the specific exhaustion of a man who had already waited eight years and now faced the prospect of waiting considerably longer.
"Then we do the evaluation," he said. "Thoroughly, cooperatively, and we make absolutely certain it comes back clean enough that he can't use it as leverage a second time."
The evaluation, conducted the following week by an independent neurologist and psychiatrist working together, confirmed Nathaniel's full cognitive competence, his memory loss from eight years earlier having resolved completely and permanently once his identity and orientation returned during his recovery.
"This should close that particular door," Priya said, once the results came through. "I expect Gerald's team to shift tactics again fairly quickly, given how little traction this attempt actually gained."
She was right. Within a week, a new filing arrived, this one attempting to challenge the authenticity of the recorded conversation Priya's team had obtained, arguing it had been illegally obtained and should be excluded from any future proceedings.
"He's throwing everything he has at the wall," Nathaniel observed, reading through yet another legal challenge. "Hoping something eventually sticks long enough to slow us down."
"That's precisely what desperate, guilty people do," Priya said. "I want you both to understand that every one of these delay tactics is, in its own way, additional evidence of exactly how much he understands he actually has to lose. Innocent men don't typically fight this hard against a fair, thorough investigation."
Charlotte, increasingly aware of the tension building around the adults in her life despite their careful efforts to shield her from the worst of it, found her mother crying quietly in the kitchen one evening after a particularly difficult call with Priya.
"Is it going to work," Charlotte asked. "Getting Grandpa's company back. Making Dad pay for what he did."
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Isabelle wiped her eyes and pulled her daughter close, choosing honesty over easy reassurance.
"I don't know exactly how it ends yet," she said. "I know we're not giving up. I know your grandfather has spent eight years preparing for exactly this fight, and I know we have people helping us who believe in the truth as much as we do. That has to be enough for right now."
