Marissa shouted that the vote itself was invalid, insisting the board had no right to remove her without following some procedure she couldn't quite name in the moment. Rebecca didn't bother arguing the point, and neither did Wade, since neither of them needed to win that particular argument anymore. The matter had already moved well beyond anything the homeowners association could resolve on its own authority.
Mason informed everyone present that the investigation would now formally examine several distinct issues connected to that morning's events: the use of what appeared to be forged legal documents, unauthorized entry onto private property, the unlawful removal of Wade's 22 vehicles, questionable financial transactions within the association, and the apparent relationship connecting Marissa, Redline Recovery, and the mysterious LLC. Mason kept his instructions simple and direct, telling everyone in the room that from this point forward, not a single document connected to any of it was to be destroyed.
Marissa's face drained of color as the full weight of that instruction settled over her. Her phone buzzed in her hand only moments later, and the message waiting for her made things considerably worse: Troy had already retained his own attorney, and rather than continuing to protect Marissa, he had decided to cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation. Troy handed investigators a complete chain of emails, invoices, and text messages documenting exactly how the operation had been planned and executed. In an attempt to protect himself, he tried framing every decision as something Marissa had directed from start to finish. But his own records also proved that Redline had known from the beginning that Wade's land fell entirely outside the association's jurisdiction.
One particular email exchange stood out above the rest for how damaging it was to both of them equally: Troy had asked what would happen if Hollister simply called the county to report what was happening. Marissa's reply made her intentions unmistakable, stating that by the time he did, the vehicles would already be gone and there would be nothing left for him to point to. It confirmed exactly what Wade had suspected from the very first morning: the entire plan depended on presenting him with an outcome so complete he would have no realistic way to reverse it.
Rather than pursuing anything resembling revenge for its own sake, Wade laid out a clear, specific set of demands through Rebecca: