Chapter 8 - THE BOARDROOM COUPVictor Vance hadn't been bluffing.
The following Tuesday, David called Emily into his office. He looked exhausted. The sharp, immaculate billionaire who had fearlessly marched into the Drake Hotel now looked battered by the quiet, vicious politics of high finance.
"The board called an emergency meeting for 3:00 PM," David said, rubbing his temples. "Led by our major shareholder, Evelyn Sterling—Richard’s mother. She owns fourteen percent of the voting stock. She’s claiming I breached my fiduciary duty by using corporate funds to pay unauthorized bonuses and by publicly humiliating an executive without board approval."
"Can they really fire you?" Emily asked, panic rising in her chest. "It was your company! You founded it!"
"When you take a company public, Emily, you sell your soul to people who care about quarterly profit margins, not human ethics," David said bitterly. "If they get a simple majority vote today, they can strip my voting rights and force me out."
Emily stood silent for a moment, her mind racing. She remembered the nights she spent cleaning the executive boardroom—specifically, the nights she spent emptying the shredder bins and filing historical archives for the procurement department.
"David," Emily said, her eyes lighting up. "Evelyn Sterling doesn't just own fourteen percent of Mercer Dynamics. She owns 'Sterling Global Logistics,' doesn't she?"
David frowned. "Yes. Why?"
"When I was cleaning the basement archives last year," Emily said frantically, "I found a box of old paper bills from 2018 marked 'Sterling Logistics - Overpass Construction.' Richard Sterling didn't just start stealing three weeks ago. He’s been using his mother’s company to double-bill Mercer Dynamics for shipping infrastructure for six years!"
David sat up straight, his fatigue vanishing in an instant. "Are those physical paper records still in the basement archive?"
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"They were in Box #402 behind the boiler room," Emily said. "I remember because the box was damp, and I had to tape the corners."
David grabbed his jacket. "Show me."
