Chapter 4 - The Boardroom Execution
The board room of Hale Tech Industries smelled of panic and expensive dry-cleaning. Three days after Victor’s arrest, the corporate executives sat around the mahogany table in absolute silence, staring at the digital presentation displayed on the smart-wall screen.
At the head of the table sat me.
My wrist was still healing, but my grip on the fountain pen I held was steady. Flanked by Adrian Cross and a team of corporate liquidation lawyers, I looked less like the timid housewife Victor had married and more like the rightful heir to an empire.
"As majority stakeholder of the emergency bridge loans and primary lien-holder of Hale Tech's corporate debt," my chief legal counsel announced smoothly, "Cross Atlantic has executed a total asset freeze. Effective immediately, Victor Hale’s voting shares have been revoked, and his executive authority is null and void."
A junior vice president raised a trembling hand. "P-Pardon me, Mrs. Hale—or, Miss Cross—but under what legal precedent? Mr. Hale’s trial hasn't even begun!"
I slid a thick manila folder across the polished wood toward him. "Try federal wire fraud, embezzlement of corporate pension funds to fund a mistress's real estate portfolio, and fraudulent misrepresentation of company solvency. Victor spent the last three years treating Hale Tech’s accounts like his personal ATM. Here are the bank statements, signed, sealed, and audited by my father’s forensic accounting team."
The vice president opened the folder, glanced at the first page, and immediately swallowed hard, sliding the papers away as if they were radioactive.
"Furthermore," I continued, leaning forward, resting my elbows on the table with quiet confidence, "this company is now under new management. Effective today, Hale Tech is being restructured as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cross Atlantic. And the first order of business..." I paused, letting my gaze sweep over every terrified face in the room "...is a complete internal purge."
My phone buzzed on the table. It was a message from Marcus at the federal holding facility.
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Victor has received his formal arraignment. Bail denied. His bank accounts are completely locked, and Serena has already fled to the Hamptons with whatever cash she could scrape together.
I locked the screen and smiled faintly. The first layer of his fortress had crumbled into dust. But the real punishment wasn't prison. The real punishment was watching everything he built, everything he killed for, handed over to the very woman he tried to erase.
