Chapter 7: The Board at Two O'Clock
The Solmere Group's boardroom occupied the top floor of the hotel.
Twelve chairs.
A long table of dark wood.
Windows on three sides that looked out over the city in every direction.
Charlotte had been in this room exactly once before — she was seven years old, and her mother had brought her in on a Sunday when the building was quiet, lifted her into the chair at the head of the table, and said: *One day, this will be yours.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.*
Charlotte sat in that chair now.
The board members arrived in ones and twos.
Seven of them in total.
Some she recognized from photographs.
One — a woman named Patricia Ellison, the longest-serving member — stopped in the doorway when she saw Charlotte and stood there for a full three seconds before walking in and taking her seat without a word.
Gerald sat to Charlotte's right.
Her attorney, a sharp-eyed woman named Renata Cruz, sat to her left.
Renata had driven two hours that morning and looked like she had enjoyed every minute of it.
Dominic did not appear.
At two-oh-three, Charlotte looked at the empty chair where he would have sat and said, "We'll proceed without Mr.
Hartwell."
"On what authority?" said a man named Warren Cole, three seats down.
He was the newest board member — appointed fourteen months ago, Charlotte noted.
Around the same time Dominic's shell firm was incorporated.
"On the authority of the ownership transfer filed with the court," Renata said, sliding a copy in front of him.
"Which supersedes the appointment structure put in place following Mrs.
Vale's death, as the filing predates all subsequent changes to the board composition."
Warren looked at the document.
He looked at Renata.
He looked at Charlotte.
"This will be challenged," he said.
"It already has been," Charlotte said.
"The challenge was reviewed and dismissed this morning.
The court order is on page three."
He turned to page three.
Patricia Ellison, at the far end of the table, said quietly: "I'd like to speak."
Everyone looked at her.
She was in her late sixties.
She had served on this board for nineteen years.
She had known Charlotte's mother for longer than that.
"I voted against the appointment structure after Eleanor's death," Patricia said.
"I was outvoted.
I want that on the record." She looked at Charlotte.
"I also want it on the record that I am prepared to support the legitimate ownership claim of Eleanor Vale's heir, and I am prepared to do so publicly if necessary."
The room shifted.
Warren Cole set the document down.
Two other board members exchanged a look.
Charlotte said, "Thank you, Patricia."
"Don't thank me," Patricia said.
"Just run it properly.
Your mother would expect nothing less."
The meeting lasted forty minutes.
By the end of it, Warren Cole had gone quiet.
The two members who had exchanged looks had both asked careful, technical questions about the transition timeline — the kind of questions people ask when they are already thinking about which side they want to be on.
At the close of the meeting, Charlotte said: "Effective immediately, all executive decisions require my sign-off.
All account access changes made in the past fourteen months are under review.
Anyone with concerns about that review is welcome to speak with Renata directly."
She stood up.
"This company was built by my family," she said.
"I intend to honor that."
She walked out of the boardroom.
In the elevator going down, Renata said, "Warren Cole is going to be a problem."
"I know," Charlotte said.
"He has a relationship with Hartwell going back further than the board appointment.
I found a paper trail this afternoon."
Charlotte looked at her.
"How far back?"
May you like
Renata's expression answered before her words did.
"Far enough," she said, "that you need to know what else Dominic Hartwell was hiding."
