Chapter 7 - The Checkmate
The boardroom of Hail Industries smelled of fear and expensive cologne.
I didn't knock this time. I simply walked in at 8:55 AM, five minutes before the emergency vote. The room was packed with shareholders, lawyers, and the twelve directors.
At the head of the table, my mother looked haggard. The impeccable queen of Wall Street had bags under her eyes. Her silver hair was slightly out of place. The Ashford scandal was pulling Hail Industries down with it like an anchor.
When I walked in, silence blanketed the room.
"Garrett," Arthur Pendelton breathed, looking at me like I was a savior. "You've returned."
"I am here as the legal proxy for the majority shareholder, Posie Whitlock," I said formally, taking the empty seat opposite my mother.
Eleanor glared at me. "You did this. You leaked the Ashford files. You destroyed our biggest ally."
"I destroyed a criminal, Mother. Something you should have done years ago instead of trying to force me to marry his daughter."
I looked around the table at the twelve old men.
"Gentlemen," I began, my voice carrying total authority. "Hail Industries is bleeding. By the end of the week, the SEC will investigate us simply by association. The stock is down forty percent."
"We know!" Pendelton cried. "What is your proposal, Garrett? Will you return as CEO and stabilize the company?"
"No."
A collective gasp echoed in the room.
"I will not return," I said. "But I will save your money. On one condition."
I pulled a single legal document from my briefcase and slid it across the long obsidian table. It stopped right in front of my mother.
"What is this?" Eleanor asked, her voice trembling slightly.
"That is a legally binding contract relinquishing your position as Chairman of the Board, surrendering your voting rights, and agreeing to immediate, permanent retirement," I stated coldly. "You will surrender all your shares to the company treasury. You will walk out of this building today, and you will never return."
Eleanor slammed her hands on the table, standing up. "You arrogant little boy! I built this company! I am Hail Industries! I will not let you steal it from me for some... some street trash!"
"Sign it, Eleanor," I said, leaning forward, my gray eyes locking onto hers. "Or I release the second file."
Her breath hitched. "What second file?"
"The one containing the wire transfers," I whispered, though the quiet room heard every word. "The million dollars you paid a certain hospital administrator to alter medical records. The private investigators you hired to harass a pregnant woman. The blackmail. The extortion."
Eleanor's face drained of all color. She looked like a ghost.
"If you don't sign," I continued mercilessly, "I will hand that file to the District Attorney. You will spend your golden years in a federal women's prison. You will be remembered not as a titan of industry, but as a monster."
The board members looked at Eleanor in horror. They didn't care about morality, but they cared about PR. A Chairman going to jail for blackmailing a pregnant woman would destroy the brand forever.
"Sign it, Eleanor," Pendelton demanded, pushing a pen toward her.
"You have no choice," another director added.
My mother looked around the room. The men she had controlled for decades were turning on her like hungry wolves. She looked back at me. Her own flesh and blood. The son she thought she could control.
Her hands shook as she picked up the pen.
She signed her name. The heavy strokes of ink sealing her exile.
She threw the pen at me and stood up. She didn't say a word. She grabbed her coat and walked out of the boardroom. The heavy doors clicked shut behind her.
The witch was dead.
I stood up, buttoning my suit jacket.
"Pendelton," I said. "You're the new acting Chairman. Restructure the board. Distance the company from Ashford. The stock will rebound by next quarter."
"Where are you going, Garrett?" Pendelton asked, bewildered. "You're giving us the company? Just like that?"
"It's just money, Arthur," I smiled, a genuine, burden-free smile. "I have something much more valuable waiting for me at home."
May you like
I turned my back on the empire, walked to the elevator, and pressed the button for the ground floor.
I was finally free.
