Chapter 5: The Vote at Nine O’Clock
At 8:55 the next morning, Ethan and Emily entered the company boardroom together.
Vanessa sat in Ethan’s chair, with Margaret on one side and three solicitors on the other.
“You’re late,” Vanessa said.
“It isn’t nine yet,” Emily replied.
“You don’t belong in this room.”
Ethan pulled out a chair for his sister.
“She owns the same inheritance interest I do.”
“Not according to the documents your father signed.”
Emily placed photographs of the torn letter on the table.
“Documents you removed from my pocket.”
Vanessa glanced at them.
“Scraps found in a hotel prove nothing.”
Margaret pushed a folder toward the directors.
“We have statements showing Emily pressured her father during his illness.
Until the investigation is complete, her claim should be suspended.”
“Statements from whom?” Ethan asked.
“Oliver Reeves.”
The door opened.
Oliver entered with Nora and a woman carrying a recording device.
Oliver remained standing.
“I withdrew that statement this morning.”
Margaret’s fingers tightened around her pen.
“You signed a confidentiality agreement.”
“I also signed an affidavit explaining how you dictated every word.”
Vanessa looked at the directors.
“He admitted forging Ethan’s signature.
Nothing he says can be trusted.”
One director adjusted his glasses.
“The filed proxy appears valid until a court declares otherwise.”
“Then call the vote,” Vanessa said.
Ethan leaned across the table.
“You humiliated my sister, stole our father’s letter, and filed papers bearing my forged signature.
You still expect these people to follow you?”
“I expect them to protect the company from a man having a public breakdown.”
“A breakdown?”
“You abandoned your bride in front of two hundred guests because a waitress cried.”
Emily stood.
“Say it again.”
Vanessa smiled.
“A waitress cried.”
“No.
Say why you needed Ethan to believe I was beneath him.”
Margaret struck the table with her palm.
“Enough.”
The company secretary read the motion.
Four directors voted to suspend Ethan.
Three voted against it.
Vanessa slid the executive key card from his side of the table.
“Security will escort you out.”
For one moment, nobody moved.
Then the oldest director lowered his eyes and closed Ethan’s file.
Emily touched her brother’s shoulder.
“We’ll fight this somewhere the truth matters.”
“Before you go,” a man said from the doorway, “perhaps the board should see what paid for this takeover.”
Vanessa turned.
“Dad?”
Richard Hale, Vanessa’s father, walked in carrying a ledger and a small metal key.
“You said you were too ill to attend,” Margaret said.
“I was too ashamed.”
Vanessa rose.
“You don’t understand what’s happening.”
“I understand that you transferred money from the Hale family trust into a company registered to Oliver’s cousin.”
“That was a wedding expense.”
“Wedding expenses do not total eight hundred thousand dollars.”
Richard laid the ledger in front of Ethan.
“I paid Oliver’s mother’s first bill,” he said.
“Vanessa took over the payments because she knew it would keep him obedient.”
“Why are you helping us?” Emily asked.
“Because I watched my daughter become cruel and called it ambition.
Your father confronted me three months ago.
I told him I would handle it privately.”
Richard looked at Vanessa.
“I protected your name when I should have protected the people you were harming.”
Vanessa grabbed the ledger, but Nora caught the cover before she could tear it.
“The hotel cameras recorded you taking Emily’s envelope,” Nora said.
“Would you like another recording of you destroying evidence?”
Vanessa released it.
A solicitor whispered into her ear.
She listened, then sat down.
“The vote stands,” she said.
“Ethan is removed, and I control the company.”
Richard placed the metal key in Emily’s hand.
“Your father gave me this the night he confronted us.
It opens a deposit box under both your names.”
“What’s inside?” Ethan asked.
“The original trust amendment and the accounting records.”
Margaret gave a short laugh.
“That box was emptied yesterday.”
Richard stared at her.
“You couldn’t have opened it without my key.”
May you like
Margaret reached into her handbag and placed an identical key on the table.
“I didn’t need yours.”
