Chapter 7 - The Boardroom WarBy Monday morning, everyone had an opinion about me.
Television commentators called the Aurelia acquisition suspicious.
Anonymous sources described me as secretive.
One article suggested I had married Julian specifically to gain access to the company.
That one almost impressed me.
Apparently I had spent seven years executing the least efficient corporate takeover in American history.
Northstar's attorneys told me to remain silent.
I refused.
At nine, I entered Aurelia's boardroom.
Every seat was occupied.
Malcolm's was empty.
Julian sat near the end of the table, no longer an executive but present because investigators had requested his testimony.
Camilla joined by video from a protected location.
I placed my mother's files on the table.
“Before anyone votes on removing me, you're going to hear why Malcolm Reed wants me removed.”
One director interrupted.
“The allegations against you—”
“Were submitted by a man currently wanted for questioning in an attempted shooting.”
Silence.
Evelyn distributed the documents.
Richard entered last.
Several older directors recognized him.
One woman whispered, “My God.”
For the next ninety minutes, Richard explained Meridian.
He explained the forged patents.
The shell companies.
The stolen research.
My father's death.
His own disappearance.
Then Camilla testified.
She admitted everything.
The affair.
The invoices.
Malcolm's instructions.
Her own crimes.
Julian was last.
He could have protected himself.
Instead, he didn't.
“I signed invoices I didn't verify because I believed Malcolm would make me president.”
One director asked, “Were you compensated?”
“No.”
“Then why?”
Julian looked toward me.
“Ego.”
The room went quiet.
“I thought being important meant being above questions. Malcolm understood that and used it.”
He swallowed.
“I betrayed my wife. I ignored financial controls. I humiliated employees who challenged me. Those decisions were mine. Malcolm manipulated me, but he didn't create my character.”
I had never heard Julian speak like that.
Not once.
The board postponed the removal vote.
Two hours later, federal investigators arrived.
The evidence was finally enough to reopen both deaths.
But Malcolm remained missing.
Then my phone rang.
Private number.
I answered.
“Hello, Audrey.”
Malcolm.
Everyone in the room froze.
I activated speakerphone.
“Where are you?”
“Your mother asked the same question once.”
My hand tightened.
“What do you want?”
“The original Meridian files.”
“You already have them.”
“I have copies.”
He knew.
“Bring Richard's originals to Pier Nine tonight.”
“No.”
A pause.
Then Malcolm said, “You might reconsider after checking your house.”
The line disconnected.
I called my security team.
No answer.
Then the alarm company.
A breach had occurred twenty minutes earlier.
I thought of the house.
There was nothing there worth—
Then I remembered.
My mother's archive.
Boxes I had moved from Northstar after her death.
Private letters.
Financial journals.
And the original ledger proving who had funded Northstar thirty years earlier.
Malcolm didn't need Meridian alone.
He needed my mother's records.
We reached the house with police twelve minutes later.
The front door was open.
Nothing looked disturbed.
Until I entered my mother's old reading room.
The archive boxes were gone.
On the desk sat my missing diamond earrings.
Beside them was a handwritten note.
Pier Nine. Midnight. Come alone.
Julian appeared behind me.
“You aren't going.”
I turned.
“You don't get to tell me what to do anymore.”
“I know.”
That stopped me.
He continued.
“But I'm still allowed to tell you when something is obviously a trap.”
“It is a trap.”
“Then why go?”
“Because Malcolm thinks those originals can destroy him.”
“Can they?”
“Yes.”
“Then give them to the FBI.”
“They already have copies.”
Julian stared at me.
Then understood.
“You want Malcolm to believe you still have the only originals.”
“Yes.”
“You're baiting him.”
“Yes.”
His jaw tightened.
“Then I'm coming.”
“No.”
“Audrey.”
“No.”
He stepped closer but didn't touch me.
“I spent years standing in front of you when I wanted attention and behind you when you needed support.”
His voice dropped.
“Let me get one thing right.”
For a second, I saw the man I had married before ambition hollowed him out.
I shook my head.
“This doesn't fix us.”
“I know.”
“You aren't earning me back.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Julian looked at the bruising on my shoulder.
“Because protecting you shouldn't require a reward.”
At 11:58 that night, I walked onto Pier Nine carrying a black case.
Julian was nowhere visible.
Neither were the federal agents positioned around the harbor.
Malcolm stepped from the darkness.
He smiled.
“You look like your mother.”
I held the case tighter.
“And you look like a man who ran out of exits.”
May you like
He raised a gun.
“Open it.”
