Chapter 6 - The Forty-Second FloorThe emergency board meeting was already underway when the heavy oak doors of the grand boardroom slammed open.
Twelve of Chicago’s most powerful corporate directors sat around the polished walnut table, their faces pale and tense. At the head of the table sat Marcus Vance, looking every bit the triumphant emperor, leaning forward with his hands steepled.
"As I was saying, gentlemen," Marcus announced smoothly, projecting his voice across the silent room. "Julian Blackwell's recent personal tragedies have compromised his ability to manage—"
Suddenly, the massive multi-screen display behind him flickered violently. The corporate presentation charts vanished, replaced instantly by a live, split-screen video feed.
On the left side of the screen was the secret offshore financial ledger—every single unauthorized wire transfer, every skimmed dollar from household workers, and every signature authorized by Marcus Vance over a six-year period.
On the right side of the screen was live, high-definition security footage from sub-level three, showing me standing side-by-side with June Carter, looking directly into the camera lens.
Marcus froze mid-sentence. The color drained entirely from his face, leaving him looking like a corpse in an expensive suit.
"What is the meaning of this?!" shouting erupted from the end of the table as Blackwell’s oldest board member, Arthur Sterling, slammed his fist down. "Marcus, explain those routing numbers immediately!"
"It's a digital fabrication!" Marcus stammered, his polished veneer shattering in real-time as he lunged toward the master control console. "Cut the feed! Cut it now!"
"You can't cut a broadcast coming straight from the mainframe, cousin," a clear, resonant voice echoed through the boardroom's surround-sound speaker system.
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It was June. She had patched her audio directly through the tower's PA network from the sub-level relay.
"For six years, Marcus Vance has systematically embezzled millions from corporate operational budgets while starving the very people who maintain his properties," June’s voice rang out, cold and unyielding across the forty-second floor. "And with those stolen funds, he attempted a hostile takeover of Blackwell Holdings using illegal proxy votes. All the documentation, bank logs, and notarized confessions are currently being mirrored to the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Chicago Tribune investigative desk."
