Chapter 5: The Vote David Thought He Owned
At nine the next morning, we entered the company boardroom.
David sat beside Victor as if he still belonged there.
Grace placed three folders in front of me.
“Why isn’t he in custody?” Lily whispered.
“The investigators want the transfer to remain active long enough to identify every recipient,” Grace said.
“If David believes he can still win, he may lead us to the others.”
David tapped the table.
“Can we begin?”
Board chairman Walter Price adjusted his glasses.
“We are here to consider an emergency motion suspending Anna Mercer’s voting authority pending a competency review.”
Lily stood.
“My signature was obtained through deception.”
David did not look at her.
“You signed voluntarily.”
“You covered the document.”
“You were tired.
That doesn’t make it fraud.”
Grace slid Lily’s written statement across the table.
David pushed it away.
“A daughter protecting her mother isn’t an independent witness.”
“And a husband trying to take his wife’s company is?” I asked.
Victor rose from his chair.
“I move that Anna be suspended until the transfers are investigated.”
I stared at him.
“You just admitted David owned the company receiving the money.”
“I said the receiving account appeared connected to him.
I was under pressure.”
“From whom?”
Victor pointed at me.
“From Anna.”
David folded his hands, hiding a smile.
Grace opened the first folder.
“Do you have evidence?”
Victor placed printed emails on the table.
Each appeared to show instructions from my private account ordering him to move the pension money.
Walter read the first page.
“These messages include Anna’s digital certificate.”
“They’re false,” I said.
David leaned toward the chairman.
“This is precisely why she should be removed.”
Martin lifted his phone.
“I have David’s recording.”
“The recording was made without consent,” David replied.
“It may not be admissible, and it proves nothing about Anna’s emails.”
One director looked at me.
“Until we know who authorized the transfer, we cannot allow either spouse to control the firm.”
David spoke softly.
“Suspend us both, then.”
Grace’s head snapped toward him.
He continued, “Appoint Victor as temporary administrator.”
Victor lowered his eyes too quickly.
“That was always your plan,” I said.
“Victor gets control, completes the transfer, and sends the money to you.”
“Prove it.”
Walter called for the vote.
Five hands supported temporary suspension.
Four opposed it.
Walter looked at me.
“Anna, your voting authority is suspended for seventy-two hours.”
David finally smiled.
Victor stood and entered his authorization code into the boardroom computer.
A confirmation box appeared on the screen:
RELEASE SECOND TRANSFER—$6,000,000?
“Don’t touch that button,” Lily said.
Victor’s finger hovered over the keyboard.
“As acting administrator, I have a duty to complete previously authorized transactions.”
Grace opened the second folder.
“That money belongs to employees.”
“The transfer is contractually binding,” Victor replied.
David walked behind my chair and bent close enough that only Lily and I could hear him.
“You should have taken my deal.”
I rose and faced him.
“You forged my name, deceived our daughter, and tried to empty a pension fund.”
“And now your own board thinks you did it.”
Victor clicked APPROVE.
The screen displayed: TRANSFER PROCESSING.
David straightened his tie.
“You wanted everyone to know you owned seventy percent,” he said.
“Now they’ll know you owned seventy percent when the money vanished.”
The conference-room doors opened.
A gray-haired woman carrying a bank security badge entered with two federal financial investigators.
“Mr.
Cole,” she said, “take your hand away from that computer.”
Victor froze.
The woman placed a sealed envelope in front of me.
“I’m Margaret Shaw, chief compliance officer for Continental Trust.
The transfer did not go where David expected.”
David’s chair scraped backward.
May you like
Margaret looked directly at him.
“It went into an account you opened under another name eighteen years ago.”
