Chapter 4 - The Hidden Clause
We entered the boardroom together.
Rachel insisted that security remain outside. Arthur backed her, and Ethan had no choice but to agree.
Eleven directors took their seats around the long glass table.
Vanessa slipped into the room behind Ethan.
“She isn’t a board member,” I said.
“She’s advising me,” Ethan replied.
Rachel placed her folder on the table. “Then anything discussed in her presence becomes discoverable.”
Vanessa immediately stepped back into the hallway.
Ethan watched her leave.
It was the first time I saw resentment pass between them.
Arthur called the emergency session to order.
Rachel explained that my father’s trust had officially terminated that morning. Thirty-eight percent of Hayes Aerospace’s voting shares had transferred to me.
Two directors exchanged startled looks.
Ethan leaned back as though he was bored.
“I remain CEO under my employment agreement.”
Rachel removed another document.
“Not automatically.”
She directed everyone to Section Fourteen.
My father had included a morality and fiduciary clause. If credible evidence suggested the CEO had committed financial misconduct, the controlling shareholder could suspend him pending an independent investigation.
Ethan laughed.
“You have no evidence.”
Daniel placed a flash drive on the table.
“I do.”
Ethan’s eyes hardened.
Daniel described the shell companies and inflated vendor contracts. Over eighteen months, nearly twelve million dollars had moved out of Hayes Aerospace.
One of the vendors was Red Summit Consulting.
Vanessa’s company.
“This is absurd,” Ethan said. “Red Summit provides strategic services.”
“What services?” I asked.
He turned toward me. “Services you wouldn’t understand.”
“Try me.”
He couldn’t.
Arthur inserted Daniel’s drive into the conference-room computer.
The folders were empty.
Daniel went pale.
“That’s impossible.”
Ethan smiled.
“You broke into company systems, stole a blank drive, and brought it into a board meeting. Impressive.”
Daniel pulled the drive out. “Someone wiped it.”
Rachel looked at Ethan. “You seemed very certain it was blank.”
Silence.
Ethan’s smile weakened.
My phone vibrated again.
The unknown number had sent a photograph.
It showed Daniel meeting my father in a parking garage.
The image was followed by a message:
Mercer betrayed him. Ask who received $400,000 after your father died.
I turned the screen toward Daniel.
“What is this?”
His face lost color.
Arthur read the message over my shoulder.
“Did you receive four hundred thousand dollars?”
Daniel said nothing.
Ethan stood.
“This meeting is over.”
“No,” I said. “Sit down.”
His eyes flashed.
For the first time in our marriage, he obeyed me.
Daniel stared at the photograph.
“I can explain the money.”
“Then explain it.”
“It came from your father.”
“Why?”
“Because he knew he was going to die.”
The room became painfully quiet.
Daniel looked directly at me.
“Robert didn’t pay me to investigate Ethan.”
May you like
He swallowed.
“He paid me to protect you from him.”
