Chapter 4 - The Boardroom of Truth
The annual shareholder meeting was held at the Bellamy Medical headquarters. The room was tense, filled with investors, board members, and the press, who were all clamoring for a look at the "scandalous wife" and the "matriarch who fell from grace."
Margaret walked in wearing a suit of navy blue, her head held high as if she were attending a gala. She didn't look at me as she took her seat at the head of the long, polished table. She was confident. She had her allies, her lobbyists, and her secret slush funds.
I walked in beside Daniel. I wore a tailored black dress, my hair pulled back, my expression calm. I felt like a different person.
"I move for a vote to remove Daniel Bellamy from his position as CEO," Margaret began, her voice ringing out, clear and commanding. "Given the recent, well-documented instability in his household and his failure to maintain the ethical standards of this firm, he is currently a liability."
The room murmured. A few heads nodded.
"I object," Daniel said, standing up. "I have a supplemental report to present."
He looked at me. I stood up and clicked a button on my laptop.
The main screen in the boardroom flickered to life. It didn't show my "breakdown." It showed a video feed of Margaret Bellamy meeting with a lobbyist, discussing the embezzlement of twelve million dollars from the corporate pension fund to cover her own gambling debts in Macau.
The room went dead silent.
Margaret’s face turned an ashen white. She stood up, her hand shaking as she pointed at the screen. "That’s a forgery! It’s a violation of privacy! You’ve been spying on me!"
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"I’ve been monitoring the corporate integrity of the firm I helped build," I said, my voice projecting across the room. "And I’ve been documenting every single illegal transaction you’ve authorized in the last ten years."
The Board of Directors looked at one another, then at the evidence. The vote to remove Daniel was not even called. Instead, a motion was immediately passed to strip Margaret of her shares and initiate a criminal inquiry into her conduct.
