CHAPTER 9 — THE BOARDROOM TRAP
Thomas survived.
The bullet passed through his shoulder without striking an artery.
Detective Morales placed him under guard while I prepared for the board meeting.
She wanted it canceled.
I refused.
“If Gavin wants everyone together, we let him believe he succeeded.”
“That is dangerous.”
“So is letting him choose the next location.”
The board gathered at Sterling Tower the following morning.
Twenty-one directors sat around the walnut table.
Beatrice attended by video.
David Hale sat beside the corporate secretary.
My chair remained empty by order of the temporary executive committee.
Gavin appeared through a secure video link.
His face filled the wall screen.
“Richard Sterling has demonstrated emotional instability, reckless behavior and an inability to protect company assets,” he said.
He presented forged medical evaluations.
Private recordings of me shouting at Eleanor.
Photographs of police vehicles outside my estate.
The directors shifted uneasily.
Then Eleanor appeared on another screen from county detention.
Her attorney had arranged her testimony.
“My husband has become paranoid,” she said tearfully. “He frightened Maya and trapped innocent guests in our home.”
I placed Scout’s dog bowl on the boardroom table.
The room fell silent.
“This was Maya’s dinner.”
Eleanor’s expression broke for half a second.
I played the recording of her discussing the forged trust amendment with Gavin.
Several directors immediately began whispering.
Gavin did not react.
“That file is manipulated,” he said.
Then every screen in the boardroom turned black.
The doors locked.
A countdown appeared.
TEN MINUTES UNTIL PUBLIC RELEASE.
Folders began uploading to hundreds of journalists, regulators and company employees.
Gavin’s voice came through the speakers.
“The Sterling family built its fortune on fraud, medical coercion and stolen research.”
He wasn’t bluffing.
The files on the screens showed illegal clinical data purchases, bribed regulators and covert settlements dating back forty years.
My father’s signatures appeared everywhere.
But so did mine.
Documents I had signed without knowing what was hidden inside them.
“Richard,” Gavin said, “you can stop the release.”
“How?”
“Recognize me as Charles Sterling’s legal son. Transfer voting control to me.”
“And then?”
“I save the company.”
“No. You bury the evidence.”
“Forty thousand employees will lose their jobs if this goes public.”
It was the same threat Charles had used against Sarah.
Protect the family.
Protect the workers.
Protect everyone except the victims.
I looked around the table.
Some directors were frightened.
Others looked guilty.
They had known portions of the truth.
Maybe not all of it.
But enough.
The countdown reached six minutes.
David leaned toward me.
“If the files release without context, the stock will collapse.”
I thought of Maya apologizing for spilling dog food.
I thought of Sarah losing her treatment.
I thought of every family forced into silence because our company was considered too important to fail.
“Open the doors,” I told building security.
“They’re locked remotely.”
“Then break them.”
Gavin’s voice sharpened.
“Richard, think carefully.”
“I am.”
I walked to the boardroom camera.
“My name is Richard Sterling. Effective immediately, I resign as chief executive.”
The directors erupted.
I continued.
“I am also directing our legal department to preserve every record and cooperate with federal investigators.”
Gavin’s face twisted.
“You’ll destroy everything.”
“No,” I said. “I’m ending what destroyed us.”
The countdown reached zero.
The files released.
Phones began ringing across the room.
News alerts appeared instantly.
Sterling Global’s stock dropped twelve percent in four minutes.
Then Detective Morales entered through the broken door.
“We traced Gavin’s transmission.”
“Where is he?”
“At Hawthorne House.”
My father’s facility.
She looked at me grimly.
“And he has Charles.”
A new video appeared on my phone.
Gavin stood beside my father.
Charles was tied to a chair.
Behind them was Maya’s school counselor, Mrs. Gable.
May you like
Gavin held a gun against her head.
“Bring me the original codicil,” he said, “or the woman who saved your daughter dies.”
