Chapter 8 - The Vote
Blackwood Holdings occupied the top fourteen floors of a glass tower overlooking Washington.
By the time Adrian arrived, the emergency board meeting had already begun.
He entered on foot.
The effect was immediate.
Conversation died.
Nine directors stared.
Malcolm sat at the head of the table.
Helen Price stood beside him.
Dr. Peter Lang occupied a chair near the windows.
Adrian walked in with Emma and Daniel behind him.
Malcolm recovered first.
“You were not invited.”
Adrian smiled.
“I own forty-one percent of the voting company. I thought I’d risk the social embarrassment.”
Helen’s face revealed nothing.
Adrian looked at her.
“You disappoint me.”
Helen answered quietly.
“Sit down.”
“I’d rather stand.”
Malcolm’s expression tightened.
Dr. Lang stared at Adrian’s legs.
Adrian turned toward him.
“You’re not surprised.”
Lang adjusted his glasses.
“I supervised your rehabilitation.”
“You signed a confidentiality agreement.”
“I did.”
“You told them.”
“I told legal counsel your neurological function had improved.”
Helen said, “As he was legally required to.”
Emma looked at Adrian.
That mattered.
Perhaps Lang had not betrayed him exactly as they thought.
Adrian asked, “Did you sign the permanent-incapacity certification?”
“No.”
“Did you know your signature was forged?”
“I learned yesterday.”
“Why didn’t you call me?”
Lang looked at Helen.
“She advised me not to.”
Adrian laughed without humor.
“Of course.”
Helen folded her hands.
“You are making assumptions based on incomplete evidence.”
Emma set the Riverside ledger on the table.
“Then complete it.”
Helen looked at the ledger.
For the first time, her composure broke.
Only slightly.
Malcolm noticed too.
Emma said, “My father kept records.”
Malcolm’s face hardened.
“Samuel should have destroyed those.”
Emma stared at him.
“Thank you.”
Malcolm realized what he had said.
Daniel quietly activated a recorder.
Helen closed her eyes.
“Malcolm.”
He snapped, “Don’t.”
Adrian looked around the table.
“Before anybody votes on my competence, perhaps we should discuss the $480,000 paid to my head of security through a Northstar subsidiary.”
Several directors murmured.
Malcolm said, “Unverified allegations.”
“Or the fraudulent certification from a dead doctor.”
More murmurs.
Helen interrupted.
“The purpose of this meeting is narrower.”
Adrian turned to her.
“No. The purpose of this meeting is to strip me of control before evidence reaches regulators.”
Helen’s eyes flashed.
“You still don’t understand.”
“Then explain.”
She looked at Malcolm.
Something passed between them.
Not partnership.
Fear.
Helen said, “The Harbor transaction is scheduled to close Friday.”
Adrian stared.
“I canceled it.”
“Your cancellation is being challenged as invalid.”
“By whom?”
“Northstar.”
“On what basis?”
“That you lacked capacity when you terminated negotiations.”
Emma understood.
If Adrian’s decisions before the accident were invalidated, the Harbor sale could proceed.
Malcolm would gain hundreds of millions.
Perhaps billions.
Adrian looked at the directors.
“If you approve this, every one of you becomes part of the litigation.”
One director, Susan Park, leaned forward.
“Adrian, are you medically competent?”
“Yes.”
“Dr. Lang?”
Everyone turned.
Lang hesitated.
Then:
“Yes.”
Malcolm slammed his hand on the table.
“You certified him impaired.”
“No.”
Lang faced him.
“I evaluated temporary cognitive symptoms caused by pain medication after surgery. I never certified permanent incapacity.”
Helen placed a document before the directors.
“This is why I called the meeting tonight.”
It was not an incapacity vote.
It was a motion to suspend all trust transfers pending independent investigation.
Adrian stared.
“You’re stopping Malcolm?”
Helen looked at him.
“I’ve been trying to.”
Emma frowned.
“Then why the payments?”
Helen looked at the ledger.
“Because your father used my consulting firm to move restitution money back into Riverside pension accounts without publicly admitting the theft.”
Emma stared.
“Two-point-four million dollars?”
“The first installment.”
“So you helped Thomas hide Malcolm’s crime.”
“Yes.”
The admission stunned the room.
Helen did not flinch.
“I believed exposing the theft in 2012 would collapse the company’s refinancing and destroy thousands more pensions.”
Emma’s voice sharpened.
“So you chose which victims mattered.”
Helen’s face tightened.
“Yes.”
No excuse.
No denial.
Adrian asked, “Who replaced the amendment?”
Helen looked at him.
“I did.”
Silence.
“Why?”
“Because Thomas ordered me to leave the decoy in the corporate file until Malcolm attempted to use it.”
“You let everyone believe Malcolm could inherit control.”
“Yes.”
“For five years?”
“Yes.”
Adrian’s anger rose.
“That is insane.”
“It was your father.”
“And you obeyed him after he was dead?”
“I obeyed the legal instructions attached to a valid trust.”
Malcolm stood.
“This is irrelevant.”
Helen turned on him.
“No. What is irrelevant is your belief that you ever had the right to these shares.”
She placed the genuine amendment before the board.
Malcolm went pale.
Adrian realized Helen had not betrayed him in the way he thought.
But she had still concealed enough truth to enable disaster.
Emma said, “You knew Malcolm was moving against Adrian.”
“I suspected.”
“You knew the trust was bait.”
“Yes.”
“Did you know about the accident?”
Helen’s eyes hardened.
“No.”
Malcolm laughed.
“Convenient.”
Helen ignored him.
Adrian turned to Lang.
“What did you know?”
Lang looked around the room.
Then spoke.
“Three weeks before Adrian’s accident, Cole Mercer approached me.”
Daniel leaned forward.
“What did he want?”
“Medical information.”
“About Adrian?”
“Yes.”
“What kind?”
“Whether a crash could produce injuries consistent with long-term paralysis.”
Emma felt sick.
Adrian stared.
“And you didn’t report that?”
“I did.”
“To whom?”
Lang looked at Helen.
“I called legal.”
Helen frowned.
“You never spoke to me.”
“I spoke to someone in your office.”
“Who?”
Lang hesitated.
“Your deputy counsel.”
Helen’s face changed.
Adrian knew the name before she said it.
“Rachel Wynn.”
Daniel was already searching his tablet.
Helen whispered, “Rachel left the company four months ago.”
“Where did she go?”
Daniel looked up.
“Northstar Urban Partners.”
The room erupted.
Malcolm headed for the door.
Two security officers stepped in front of him.
He stopped.
Adrian looked at Helen.
“Did you know?”
“No.”
For once, he believed her.
Daniel’s phone buzzed.
He read the incoming message.
Then looked at Adrian.
“Police found Cole Mercer.”
Emma exhaled.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
Daniel’s expression darkened.
“In Rachel Wynn’s apartment.”
Adrian looked toward Malcolm.
Malcolm’s face finally showed fear.
Daniel continued.
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“And Mercer says he’s ready to name the person who ordered the accident.”
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