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I can’t find a fact Spencer could challenge, but by the time I reach the final paragraph, I could replace Wolf Shield’s name with almost any corporation facing a scandal and barely change the statement.

I read it again before looking toward Bane. “This isn’t enough.”

Claire leans back in her chair. “I agree. That’s why the organization outreach started yesterday.”

She changes the screen, bringing up another spreadsheet beside the media tracker. Most of the rows carry the names of shelters and nonprofits connected to Bane’s missing years.

Columns show whether they’ve been contacted, whether legal has cleared public records connected to them, and whether anyone there wants to respond. Several boxes are still blank.

“Haven House confirmed receipt last night,” Claire says. “Two other directors asked for copies of the documentation we’re releasing. Nobody has agreed to make a public statement yet.”

Theo sets down his coffee. “Because we’re asking people who have spent their careers protecting privacy to voluntarily walk into a media circus.”

“Which is why we’re not pushing them,” Bane says.

I stare at the corporate statement on the screen again.

It’s accurate. Every date can be proved, every investment traced, every contract documented.

If Spencer had accused Bane of falsifying records, the documents would probably end the argument, but Spencer chose the part paperwork can’t prove and made people question why Bane walked into those shelters at all.

“The paperwork proves the money was legitimate,” I say.

Bane looks at me. “But?”

“It doesn’t answer the part Spencer wants people arguing about.”

Claire follows my gaze to the photograph still displayed beside the article.

“Why you were there,” she says.

“Exactly.”

Theo folds his arms. “And the only people who can answer that are the people who saw him there.”

“If they want to,” Bane says immediately.

I turn toward him. “If they want to.”

That’s the line we agreed on yesterday, and nobody in this room has any intention of crossing it.

Claire taps the outreach tracker. “Then we keep releasing the records, we keep every organization’s private files out of it, and we leave the door open for anyone who wants to correct the public version themselves.”

Bane nods. “That’s the plan.”

Instead of rewriting the same denial for the fifth time, we keep building the record we started yesterday. While Communications and Legal work through what can be released without exposing anyone connected to the shelters, Theo digs into old project files and Bane opens Wolf Shield’s earliest corporate records.

I spend most of the morning matching dates from Bane’s timeline to organizations we’ve already confirmed through Celeste’s notebooks.

By eleven, the first unexpected email arrives.

Claire reads it twice before turning her screen toward us. “It’s from Eleanor at Haven House.”

Bane looks up immediately.

I leave my chair and walk around the table.

Eleanor keeps Nora and every woman who stayed at Haven House out of it, along with the private records and details of Celeste’s financial help.