It was operating with a hidden deficit of nearly eight hundred million dollars.

And it was not only Mason.

As the committee pulled the thread, they found internal emails — signed authorizations from Gavin himself, instructing the accountants to make the numbers look positive no matter what it took, to protect the valuation, to keep the story alive long enough to get Crestview’s money in the door.

The great deal Gavin had been bragging about for months was never going to fund expansion.

It was going to fill a hole.