Chapter 4 - The Boardroom Slaughter
The atmosphere inside the glass-walled boardroom of Vance Innovations was toxic. Twelve board members sat in suffocating silence, the air thick with panic and impending ruin.
Julian paced at the head of the long mahogany table, sweating through his shirt.
“Listen to me!” Julian pleaded, slamming his palms on the wood. “Sterling Global is trying a hostile takeover, but we can block them! We file for Chapter 11 protection, restructure the debt, and freeze their acquisition! We just need to stand united!”
“Stand united?” scoffed Richard Hale, a senior board member. “Julian, the FBI raided your penthouse last night! You’re indicted for fraud and conspiracy! We are bleeding millions by the minute!”
“It’s a smear campaign!” Julian shouted, his eyes wide and manic. “My wife is insane! She fabricated the whole thing! If you just give me forty-eight hours—”
The heavy double doors of the boardroom swung open.
The security guards outside didn’t try to stop us. They couldn’t. My father’s private security detail had already secured the floor.
I walked in. I was wearing a tailored white Alexander McQueen suit that draped perfectly over my pregnant stomach. My hair was pulled back into a severe, flawless twist. I didn’t look down. I didn’t shrink. I looked like the billionaire heiress I was born to be.
Julian stopped dead in his tracks. All the color drained from his face as he stared at me.
“Clara?” he choked out.
“Ms. Sterling,” I corrected, my voice cold and sharp enough to cut glass. I walked directly to the opposite end of the table. My father stood silently by the door, acting as my shadow.
“What are you doing here?” Julian demanded, trying to summon his old authority, but his voice shook. “Security! Get her out of here!”
Nobody moved.
I tossed a thick stack of legal documents onto the center of the table.
“I am here acting as the sole proxy for Sterling Global,” I announced to the room, ignoring Julian entirely. “We now hold the supermajority of voting shares in this company due to the default clauses Mr. Vance triggered via his federal indictment.”
The board members stared at me in stunned silence.
“I motion for an immediate vote of no confidence to remove Julian Vance as CEO, effective immediately,” I said, locking eyes with Richard Hale.
“You can’t do this!” Julian screamed, lunging forward, only to be immediately blocked by two of my father’s guards. “This is my company! I built this!”
“You built it on my father’s money,” I replied softly. “And you built your marriage on my submission. You miscalculated on both fronts.”
I looked at the board. “All in favor?”
May you like
Twelve hands went up without a single second of hesitation.
“The motion passes,” I said, snapping the folder shut. “Julian, you are fired. Escort the trespasser off my property.”
