Chapter 4 - Seven Votes
Margaret entered the boardroom wearing cream silk and a small square bandage over the cheek Lauren had slapped.
It was deliberate.
Lauren knew it immediately.
Seven directors sat around the walnut table at Hayes Residential Group.
Margaret controlled one chair.
Lauren controlled another.
The rest belonged to two longtime executives, two outside investors, and retired judge Warren Pike, who had served beside Thomas for twenty years.
Lauren placed a folder on the table.
Margaret looked at it.
“More accusations?”
“Evidence.”
“Those words are not interchangeable.”
Lauren sat down.
Daniel remained outside with corporate counsel because he was not a director.
Margaret opened the meeting.
“Our company cannot function under public scandal.”
Lauren almost laughed.
There had been no public scandal until Margaret’s attorney issued a statement.
Margaret continued.
“My daughter physically assaulted me yesterday.”
“You assaulted Mia first.”
“An allegation.”
“There is video.”
“A fragment stripped of context.”
Warren Pike frowned.
“I watched the complete recording.”
Margaret looked at him.
“And?”
“And I saw you strike a six-year-old twice and throw her into mud.”
Margaret’s mouth tightened.
Director Kevin Sloan cleared his throat.
“We are not criminal court. We’re here because lenders have already called about leadership instability.”
Margaret folded her hands.
“Exactly.”
Lauren pushed the forged guaranty into the center of the table.
“Then perhaps lenders should be asking why someone forged my signature on a $1.2 million corporate credit facility.”
The room changed.
Margaret did not.
“This again?”
Lauren looked around.
“I never approved this loan.”
Kevin picked up the document.
“It went through our audit committee.”
“Based on a certification from Margaret.”
Margaret said smoothly, “Because Lauren approved it.”
“Show me the approval.”
“You deleted it.”
Lauren stared at her mother.
Margaret turned toward the others.
“Last year, Lauren was overwhelmed. Her father had died. She was restructuring three developments at once. She authorized dozens of things she now claims not to remember.”
Lauren felt a flash of fury.
“You made Mia practice saying I signed papers.”
For the first time, Margaret’s eyes flickered.
Only for a second.
But Lauren saw it.
So did Warren.
Margaret recovered.
“You are bringing statements allegedly made by a traumatized child into a corporate meeting?”
“Yes,” Lauren said. “Because you brought corporate crimes into my home.”
Director Susan Park leaned forward.
“Who created the guaranty?”
“Metadata identifies Richard Cole.”
Silence.
Everyone at the table knew the name.
Thomas had fired Richard after an accounting dispute.
Margaret said, “Metadata can be manipulated.”
Lauren slid another page forward.
“Home security confirms you entered my property with a man Mia identified as Richard on the night corporate files were accessed from my network.”
Margaret’s nostrils flared.
The first visible crack.
Kevin Sloan looked between them.
“Margaret?”
“I met Richard regarding historical company records.”
“At midnight?” Lauren asked.
“You were unavailable.”
“In my dead father’s study?”
Margaret snapped, “It was my husband’s study before it became your shrine.”
Silence swallowed the room.
There it was.
Not grief.
Possession.
Warren Pike said quietly, “Thomas removed Richard for cause.”
Margaret turned on him.
“Thomas made mistakes.”
“So did Richard.”
“So did Thomas.”
Lauren heard something deeper beneath the bitterness.
She filed it away.
Margaret then produced her own folder.
“I move that Lauren be placed on thirty-day administrative leave pending an independent investigation of the disputed financing and yesterday’s assault.”
Lauren’s head snapped up.
“You planned this.”
“Yes.”
The vote began.
Lauren voted no.
Margaret voted yes.
Warren voted no.
Susan Park hesitated, then voted no.
Three to one.
Kevin Sloan voted yes.
Three to two.
The sixth director, Robert Lin, looked apologetic.
“Yes.”
Three to three.
Everything came down to Ellen Voss, representative of the private investment fund holding sixteen percent of HRG.
Ellen looked at Lauren.
“This is not a judgment on guilt.”
“That is what people say before making one.”
“I have lenders threatening review clauses.”
“Because my mother is creating panic.”
“And because you struck the board chair.”
Lauren’s chest tightened.
Ellen voted yes.
Four to three.
Lauren was suspended.
Margaret sat straighter.
“Effective immediately.”
Lauren stood.
“You will regret this.”
Margaret touched the bandage on her cheek.
“Careful. Threats are becoming a pattern.”
Lauren walked out before rage could cost her more.
Daniel followed her into the elevator.
“I’m sorry.”
“She used my slap.”
“I told you she would.”
Lauren turned.
“That is not helping.”
The elevator descended.
Daniel’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed while listening.
“What?”
Lauren watched him.
Daniel ended the call.
“That was Marcus.”
“And?”
“He traced three years of archived vendor payments.”
Lauren’s pulse quickened.
“To Richard?”
“Not directly.”
“Then where?”
“A consulting company called Marlow Advisory LLC.”
Lauren frowned.
“I’ve never heard of it.”
“Neither has anyone in operations.”
“How much?”
Daniel looked at her.
“Four-point-six million dollars.”
The elevator doors opened.
Neither moved.
Lauren asked, “Who owns Marlow?”
Daniel hesitated.
“The registered manager is a holding company.”
“And behind it?”
“Richard Cole.”
Lauren stepped into the lobby.
Her phone vibrated.
A text from an unknown number.
STOP DIGGING INTO YOUR FATHER’S ACCOUNTS.
May you like
Then another message appeared.
YOU HAVE A DAUGHTER TO THINK ABOUT.
