Chapter 6 - THE BOARDROOM WAR
The injector contained an antidote.
Dana confirmed it before allowing the medical officer to administer the dose.
Reed had not intended to kill Celeste immediately.
He wanted Maren to understand that even the rescue had occurred according to his design.
Celeste was stabilized and transported to a secure hospital under another identity.
Before the ambulance doors closed, she caught Maren’s hand.
“Don’t let him win.”
Maren looked at the bruises on her sister’s face.
“You helped him.”
“I know.”
“I may never forgive you.”
Celeste began crying.
“I know.”
Maren pulled her hand away.
“But I won’t let him decide whether you live.”
The ambulance left.
By dawn, news vans surrounded Whitaker Medical Holdings.
Reed’s attorneys had leaked the emergency board meeting to reporters, along with allegations that Maren suffered a psychological breakdown after an accidental medical event.
A photograph of Evelyn entering the hospital appeared across social media.
The headline beneath it read:
DEAD HEIRESS’S MOTHER RETURNS—OR IS SHE AN IMPOSTOR?
Reed’s strategy became clear.
If Evelyn was declared fraudulent, every action connected to her private security team could be portrayed as part of a conspiracy to manipulate the company.
If Maren appeared unstable, the board could remove her before she presented evidence.
“They will attack your credibility before discussing the facts,” Dana warned.
Maren sat inside a private preparation room two floors below the board chamber.
A physician adjusted the oxygen tube beneath her nose.
Her throat remained swollen. Purple bruising covered one side of her face where Reed had struck her.
She refused makeup.
Let the cameras see what devotion looked like after the doors closed.
Thomas Hale entered carrying three legal folders.
“You should participate remotely.”
“No.”
“Your doctors recommend rest.”
“My doctors once recommended I accept permanent paralysis.”
“That was Cross.”
“And Reed. And everyone who found it convenient.”
Thomas placed the folders on the table.
“Six directors have already indicated they will support temporary removal.”
“How many do we need?”
“Five to block it.”
“Who is undecided?”
“Gordon Pike, Sylvia Chen, and Henry Bell.”
Maren knew each of them.
Gordon had served on the board since her father founded the company.
Sylvia represented institutional investors and disliked public scandal.
Henry Bell had built his fortune in hospital supply chains and changed loyalties according to the direction of money.
“Who called the meeting?”
“Gordon.”
Maren looked at Thomas.
“Why?”
“He claims the company cannot function while both the chief executive and legal chairman accuse one another of attempted murder.”
“Reed has never been legal chairman.”
Thomas hesitated.
“He filed documents last night asserting authority under your medical proxy.”
“The forged proxy.”
“Yes.”
“Then why hasn’t he been arrested for using it?”
“Maren, law does not move at the speed of outrage.”
“Reed does.”
Evelyn entered wearing the white suit.
She placed a small velvet box on the table.
“What is that?” Maren asked.
“Your father’s voting seal.”
The silver seal bore the Whitaker crest.
“I thought it was buried with him.”
“So did everyone else.”
Maren looked at her.
“What did you use it for?”
“Nothing. Until today.”
Under company bylaws, the founder’s voting seal carried authority over a protected class of shares placed in trust before Maren was born.
Those shares had never appeared in public filings because they activated only under specific conditions.
Maren understood immediately.
“An attack on family control.”
Evelyn nodded.
“Your father created the mechanism after discovering the first fraud network. If someone attempted to remove a Whitaker heir through coercion, incapacity fraud, or violence, the protected shares transferred to the surviving spouse.”
“You.”
“Yes.”
“How much voting power?”
“Seventeen percent.”
Combined with Maren’s shares, it would be enough to stop Reed.
Thomas stared at the seal.
“You told me those shares had been dissolved.”
“I told everyone.”
His expression hardened.
“You have allowed me to represent this family using incomplete information for fifteen years.”
Evelyn met his eyes.
“You have represented this family while concealing incomplete truths of your own.”
The tension between them sharpened.
Maren noticed it.
Before she could ask, Dana entered.
“Reed is in the building.”
“Arrest him,” Evelyn said.
“The district attorney issued a temporary protection order preventing your security team from detaining or approaching him.”
Maren laughed without humor.
“He obtained protection from the people he tried to murder.”
“He claims you abducted Celeste,” Dana said.
“What?”
“His attorneys say she was removed from lawful custody by armed contractors.”
“She was kidnapped from custody by Reed.”
“We know that. But the transport officers are still missing, and the forged court order was submitted through an encrypted account.”
“Connected to whom?”
Dana looked at Thomas.
“Someone at Hale, Grant and Mercer.”
Thomas’s former law firm.
Thomas removed his glasses.
“My firm has over two hundred employees.”
“Reed’s current lead attorney is Nathan Mercer,” Dana replied. “Your former partner.”
Thomas closed his eyes briefly.
Evelyn watched him.
“What aren’t you telling us?”
“Not now.”
Maren turned her wheelchair toward him.
“Now.”
Thomas looked older than he had the day before.
“Nathan Mercer represented Victor Cross before your father died.”
Maren stared at him.
“You knew?”
“I learned afterward.”
“And you stayed partners?”
“I needed access to his files.”
“For how long?”
“Seven years.”
“You built a law firm with a man you suspected of protecting my father’s killers?”
Thomas’s voice rose.
“I spent fifteen years trying to identify them!”
“You spent fifteen years making choices for me.”
A staff member entered.
“The meeting is starting.”
The boardroom occupied the forty-eighth floor.
A wall of glass overlooked the city. Reporters waited in a conference room nearby, expecting a statement after the vote.
Every director was seated when Maren entered.
Conversation stopped.
Reed stood at the opposite end of the table.
He wore a dark suit and a pale blue tie.
No handcuffs.
No visible fear.
A small bandage covered the scratch Maren had left on his wrist during the attack.
His expression softened when he saw her.
“Maren.”
She continued toward her seat.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said.
“That has been your mistake from the beginning.”
Gordon Pike called the meeting to order.
He was seventy-three, silver-haired, and usually calm.
Today, his hands shook.
“We are here to determine temporary executive authority while allegations involving Mr. and Mrs. Whitaker are investigated.”
“Attempted murder,” Maren said. “The allegation is attempted murder.”
Reed sat down.
“An allegation unsupported by criminal charges.”
Maren placed a drive on the table.
“That may change.”
Nathan Mercer, Reed’s attorney, immediately objected.
“This board is not a criminal court.”
“No,” Maren said. “A criminal court requires fewer financial conflicts.”
Several directors shifted uncomfortably.
Reed smiled.
“This is what I warned you about. She is distressed, confused, and being influenced by a woman falsely claiming to be her mother.”
The boardroom doors opened.
Evelyn entered.
Gordon Pike stood so quickly that his chair rolled backward.
“Evelyn?”
She walked to the table and placed the silver seal in front of him.
“You look disappointed, Gordon.”
His face lost color.
“I attended your funeral.”
“So did my daughters.”
Reed’s attorney stood.
“This woman’s identity has not been legally established.”
Evelyn handed him a sealed laboratory report.
“Three independent DNA tests. One ordered through your own firm after you attempted to obtain my hair from the hospital.”
Nathan Mercer’s mouth closed.
Evelyn took a seat beside Maren.
Gordon stared at the founder’s seal.
“Where did you get that?”
“My husband gave it to me the night before he died.”
Gordon reached for his water.
His fingers trembled harder.
Maren noticed a faint powder on the rim of his glass.
“Don’t drink that.”
Everyone turned.
Gordon froze.
Maren pointed.
“The glass.”
Dana moved from the wall, but Reed’s security officer stepped into her path.
Gordon looked at the water.
“What is this?”
Reed leaned forward.
“Maren, stop frightening people.”
Maren ignored him.
“Who poured it?”
A young assistant near the door raised her hand.
“It was already on the table when we arrived.”
Dana took the glass and used a testing strip from her medical kit.
The strip changed color.
“Positive for a fast-acting cardiac agent.”
Gordon stumbled backward.
Someone screamed.
Reed stood.
“This is absurd.”
Dana examined the other glasses.
Only Gordon’s tested positive.
Gordon gripped the table.
“I took a sip before the meeting.”
His knees buckled.
The room erupted.
Maren called for the medical team while Dana lowered Gordon to the floor.
Reed moved toward the door.
Evelyn blocked him.
“Where are you going?”
“To call an ambulance.”
“One is already coming.”
Nathan Mercer began gathering documents.
Dana pointed toward him.
“No one leaves.”
Company security sealed the floor.
Paramedics arrived within minutes.
As they lifted Gordon onto a stretcher, he grabbed Maren’s wrist.
His eyes were wide with terror.
“The ledger,” he whispered.
Maren leaned closer.
“What about it?”
“I didn’t destroy it.”
“Who has it?”
Gordon’s mouth moved, but no sound came.
Then he looked past Maren.
Toward Thomas Hale.
Thomas stood near the windows.
For one brief second, fear appeared on his face.
Gordon forced out two words.
“Ask Thomas.”
His hand fell away.
The paramedics carried him from the boardroom.
Every eye turned toward the family attorney.
Thomas did not move.
Maren looked at the man who had walked her down the aisle.
The man who knew her mother was alive.
The man who had protected secrets longer than Maren had been an adult.
“What does he mean?” she asked.
Thomas picked up his leather folder.
“It means Gordon is confused.”
Evelyn stood.
“No.”
Thomas looked at her.
“You know exactly what he means.”
Reed smiled from the far side of the room.
It was the smile of a man watching enemies finally turn on one another.
Thomas reached inside his jacket.
Dana drew her weapon.
“Hands where I can see them.”
Slowly, Thomas removed an old brass key.
Maren recognized it.
It had belonged to her father’s private office.
Thomas placed it on the table.
“The Orchid Ledger was never beneath the greenhouse,” he said.
“Where is it?” Maren asked.
May you like
Thomas looked at the seal resting beside Evelyn’s hand.
“Inside your father’s coffin.”
