Page 105 of Taken Away

“I know what we pay them,” he said. “And what we get.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“It’s the reality.”

“It’s leverage,” Aubrey shot back. “Predatory leverage.”

“That’s distribution.”

“That’s someone who thinks you can’t afford to walk away.”

“That’s business.”

Aubrey’s laugh was sharp and humorless.

“Funny. I used to say the same thing right before I gutted a contract.”

His gaze flicked to her mouth for half a breath, then back to her eyes.

Something in her chest stuttered.

“Say what you came in here to say, Aubrey.”

Fine.

She opened the binder and jabbed one finger against the clause.

“If Blackwood misses minimum quarterly casing volume for two consecutive reporting periods, Mercer gets automatic exclusive regional rights for ten years with first refusal on expansion markets. Ten years, Bennett. That is a chokehold.”

His eyes flicked to the page.

“I know what it says.”

“Did Mabel?”

The question landed like a slap.

Bennett’s face hardened.

“Careful.”

“No. Did she?”

“Yes,” he said sharply. “Mabel knew what she signed.”

“Then why was she pulling old distributor files the week before she died?”

That stopped him.

For half a second.

Only half.

But enough.

Aubrey saw it. The flicker. The shift.

“Who told you that?”