Chapter 7 - The Boardroom Battle
While I was at the hospital, Vanessa had been busy.
She had rallied a faction of the board of directors at my tech firm. They called an emergency meeting the day I returned to the office, arguing that my "chaotic personal life" and the negative PR Vanessa had generated were hurting the stock price. They wanted me to step down as CEO.
I walked into the glass-walled boardroom, exhausted but completely unfazed.
“Julian, we feel it’s best you take an indefinite leave of absence,” the chairman said.
I looked around the table. “You think my personal life is a liability? Let me tell you about liability.”
I tossed a thick folder onto the mahogany table. It contained a private investigator’s report I had commissioned during my time at the hospital.
“That is proof that Vanessa has been embezzling company funds to pay off her personal gambling debts for the last two years. It also shows she deliberately intercepted legal communications regarding my children, opening this company up to a massive lawsuit.”
The room went dead silent. Vanessa, who was sitting smugly at the end of the table as a "consultant," turned ghost white.
“I built this company,” I said, my voice echoing in the quiet room. “And I will not surrender it to a criminal. I am staying. Vanessa is going to prison. If anyone here has a problem with that, my lawyers will see you in court.”
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I walked out of the boardroom without waiting for a response. My phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a text from Sarah: Mia is coming home today. We made your favorite dinner.
I smiled. The company was just a business. I was going home to my real empire.
