Chapter 4 - The Story Daniel Told the Board
Daniel requested a private meeting with Asteria’s directors.
Mara was not invited.
He claimed he wanted guidance about her health.
According to the meeting notes, he described her as forgetful, suspicious and emotionally unstable.
He said she accused household objects of harming her.
He mentioned the mattress.
He did not mention that Mara’s symptoms improved whenever she slept elsewhere.
Lena attended the meeting.
She told the board Mara had recently become “unpredictable” in the laboratory.
“She stopped a major program without consulting the research team,” Lena said.
The program was the microneedle film.
Mara had stopped it years earlier for documented safety reasons.
Daniel and Lena presented the decision as recent evidence of declining judgment.
Asteria’s governing agreement contained a medical incapacity provision.
If two independent physicians declared Mara unable to fulfill her duties, her voting authority would transfer temporarily to the chief financial officer.
Daniel.
With Mara’s shares, he could approve a pending acquisition offer from Arcwell Therapeutics.
Mara had rejected Arcwell twice.
The company wanted Asteria’s patents but planned to close its patient-assistance division and move research overseas.
Daniel supported the sale.
“It would secure our future,” he told Mara.
“It would destroy everything we built.”
“It would make us wealthy enough to never work again.”
“We are already wealthy.”
“That is easy for the person whose name is on the patents to say.”
Mara stared at him.
She had never heard that bitterness so clearly.
The next day, Daniel placed medical-release forms on the kitchen counter.
“They allow the board to understand what you’re going through.”
“My health is not a board presentation.”
“If you refuse, they’ll think you’re hiding something.”
Mara read the documents.
They granted Asteria’s attorneys access to psychiatric, neurological and prescription records.
She tore them in half.
Daniel watched without reacting.
That frightened her.
He no longer needed her signature.
He only needed witnesses who could say she refused help.
Later that afternoon, Mara called Asteria’s archive director, Owen Price.
She asked to inspect the disposal record for batch H-17.
Owen hesitated.
“I thought you authorized the destruction.”
“I signed no authorization.”
Silence followed.
“The form carries your digital approval.”
Mara checked the date.
She had been at her mother’s funeral.
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Someone had used her credentials while she was three states away.
👉 The missing microneedle batch connected Mara’s bedroom symptoms to Asteria—but the employee who noticed the false disposal record disappeared before he could show her the archive footage.
