Chapter 3 - The Boardroom Siege
Forty-eight hours after Ethan and Lauren were thrown out of the White Plains estate, the corporate headquarters of Atlantic Business Solutions on Wall Street was engulfed in chaos.
The financial news networks were broadcasting non-stop coverage of the scandal. Headlines splashed across the ticker tape: "ATLANTIC ABS CEO OUSTED AMID EMBEZZLEMENT INVESTIGATION," "LIVESTREAM WEDDING TURNS INTO CORPORATE NIGHTMARE," and "BENNETT HEIRESS SURVIVES HEART SURGERY TO RECLAIM EMPIRE."
At 9:00 AM on Monday morning, I stepped out of the private elevator onto the executive floor of the Atlantic tower.
I was wearing a tailored charcoal suit, my dark hair pulled back into a tight, professional chignon. Though I still carried a light walking cane to support myself while my sternum healed, every step I took across the polished granite floor projected absolute power. Megan walked beside me, flanked by Attorney David and a team of six senior forensic accountants from Deloitte.
When we reached the main boardroom, the twenty-four members of the Board of Directors were already seated around the massive oval glass table, arguing loudly in a state of high panic.
At the head of the table sat Richard Vance—Ethan’s primary ally on the board and a senior investor who had backed his expansion schemes.
When the heavy frosted glass doors opened and I walked in, the room fell dead silent.
"Natalie," Richard Vance spoke up, standing up and smoothing his tie, his tone condescending despite the tension in the room. "We are glad to see you are... recovering. But this emergency board meeting was called by executive committee members. You cannot simply walk in here with a team of outside auditors without prior board approval."
"Richard," I said calmly, taking my seat at the head of the table while Megan placed a stack of bound financial reports in front of every director. "I don't need board approval. I own sixty-five percent of the voting shares of this company. And as of five minutes ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission has suspended Ethan’s trading license."
Gasps rippled through the room.
"What is the meaning of this, Natalie?" another director asked, leaning forward anxiously. "The stock price has dropped fifteen percent since Friday! The press is tearing us apart!"
"The stock price dropped because my former husband treated this corporation as his personal piggy bank to fund his mistress's failing fashion house," I said, pointing to the documents in front of them. "If you look at section three of the forensic audit, you will see that over the past twenty-four months, Ethan funneled twelve million dollars of Atlantic’s R&D budget into fake consulting contracts with Lauren Miller Designs."
Richard Vance’s face turned pale. "Twelve million?"
"Twelve million," Attorney David confirmed, standing beside me. "And Mr. Vance, we have pulled the digital signature logs. Three of those illegal wire transfers were authorized using your secondary board credentials."
Richard slammed his hands onto the table, his eyes darting frantically around the room. "That's a lie! I never signed off on those wires! Ethan told me those were approved operational expenses for the European expansion!"
"Then you were either completely incompetent or criminally negligent, Richard," I said, my voice cutting through the air like a razor. "Either way, your tenure on this board ends today."
Before Richard could respond, the boardroom doors flew open.
Ethan rushed into the room, looking unkempt, his eyes bloodshot, his suit wrinkled. Two corporate security guards tried to hold him back, but he shoved past them frantically.
"Natalie!" Ethan shouted, his voice echoing hysterically off the glass walls. "You can't do this! You're destroying everything I built!"
I sat back in my chair, looking at him with cool detachment. "You didn't build this company, Ethan. My father founded it, I expanded it, and you simply managed it while stealing from the coffers when you thought I was too distracted by my illness to notice."
"I am the vision behind Atlantic!" Ethan yelled, pointing at the board members. "Tell her! Tell her she needs me! The investors will pull out if I'm not leading the AI initiative!"
"The investors are currently calling my office to ask if they can file a class-action lawsuit against you, Ethan," Richard Vance blurted out, turning on Ethan instantly to save his own skin. "You lied to us! You used corporate funds to pay for your wedding and your mistress’s business!"
"You hypocrite!" Ethan spat at Richard. "You knew about Lauren! You took a kickback on the real estate lease in Soho!"
The room erupted into screaming, shouting, and complete corporate warfare as the directors turned on each other like starved animals.
I picked up the heavy wooden gavel sitting at the center of the table and brought it down twice.
BANG. BANG.
The room snapped back into silence.
"This board meeting is now in order," I said, my voice echoing with total control. "Item one on the agenda: a formal vote to terminate Ethan Brooks for cause, forfeit his unvested stock options, and initiate criminal proceedings for corporate embezzlement."
I looked around the table. "All in favor?"
Every single hand in the room went up—including Richard Vance’s.
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Ethan stood in the center of the room, looking at the twenty-four hands raised against him, his mouth agape in total, crushing defeat.
"Motion passed unanimously," I declared, looking directly into Ethan’s broken eyes. "Security, please escort the disgraced former CEO out of the building. And make sure he turns in his building pass at the door."
