Chapter 8: The Board Room
The boardroom on the 70th floor had twelve chairs and a view of the Hudson.
Nine of the twelve were occupied when I walked in.
The three empty seats belonged to Alexander, his personal attorney, and the general counsel, who had recused himself on Warren's advice.
Warren sat to my left.
Renata sat beside him with her tablet face-down on the table.
The board chair, a measured woman in her sixties named Patricia Hale, looked up when I entered.
"Elena.
Thank you for coming directly."
I sat down.
"Has Alexander been notified?"
"His attorney called twenty minutes ago.
He's declining to attend today's session." Patricia set her reading glasses on the table.
"His attorney has indicated he intends to contest the audit findings."
"That's his right."
"It is." She looked around the table.
"The board has reviewed the audit summary prepared by Ms.
Osei and the preliminary legal assessment from Mr.
Chu.
We have some questions before we vote."
The questions took forty minutes.
They were precise and serious, the way questions are when people already know the answers and are building a record.
I answered each one directly.
Warren supplemented where the documentation required context.
Renata pulled figures when asked.
At one point, a board member named Gerald Foss — who had known Alexander for fifteen years and had the careful look of a man trying to stay loyal to two things at once — leaned forward.
"Elena, in your view, was this a failure of oversight or a deliberate act?"
"The transfers were structured to avoid the standard approval threshold," I said.
"Each individual payment was kept below the level that would trigger a secondary review.
That pattern, over twenty-two months, is not an oversight failure."
Gerald sat back.
He didn't ask another question.
Patricia called the vote at ten fifty-five.
The motion was to suspend Alexander Montalvo's authority as Corporate Chairman pending a full external investigation and to refer the audit findings to the appropriate regulatory bodies.
The vote was eight to one.
Gerald Foss was the one.
Patricia set her pen down.
"The motion carries." She looked at me.
"Elena, the board wishes to formally confirm its full confidence in your leadership of this company.
We recognize that the circumstances of your first day were — extraordinary."
"They were clarifying," I said.
A few people around the table almost smiled.
After the room cleared, Warren stayed behind.
He waited until the last board member had gone, then closed the door and sat back down.
"His attorney will file for a stay on the asset transfers," he said.
"That buys him some time, but not much.
The Cayman account is already frozen pending the regulatory referral."
"And the founder shares?"
"Still in joint name.
Which means they can't be moved without your signature." Warren allowed himself a small, dry expression.
"He appears to have run out of time before he could complete the separation."
I looked out at the Hudson.
A barge was moving slowly south, unhurried, carrying something heavy.
"What about Harwick and Sole?"
"The bar association has been notified.
Billing a client's divorce proceedings to the client's employer is — not a gray area."
"No," I said.
"It isn't."
Warren gathered his papers.
"You should know — three junior employees submitted formal complaints this morning about elevator access and working conditions.
Apparently someone told them the CEO's office had an open-door policy for internal concerns."
I thought of the young woman in the lobby.
Five flights of stairs.
Every single day.
"It does," I said.
"Schedule them for this week."
Warren nodded and left.
I sat alone in the boardroom for a moment.
The Hudson moved.
May you like
The barge disappeared behind a building.
Then I went back to work.
