Chapter 9 - THE BOARD MEETING MY FAMILY COULDN’T CONTROL
The board met Friday morning.
Nobody from my family was invited.
Not Frank.
Not Carol.
Not Derek.
I was invited.
Then I recused myself from the portions involving Derek’s employment.
That surprised three directors.
It infuriated my father when he found out.
I did it anyway.
A special committee reviewed the evidence.
Five employee complaints.
Fake executive emails.
Backdated contracts.
Commission diversion.
Hawthorne payments.
Recorded conversations.
The forged revenue agreement.
By noon, Derek Holloway was terminated for cause.
Not by me.
By Peterson Tech.
At 12:17, my father called.
I answered.
“You fired your brother.”
“No.”
“Don’t play word games.”
“I recused myself.”
“You could have stopped it.”
“Yes.”
Silence.
That was the first time I admitted it.
I could have interfered.
I chose not to.
Frank’s voice became quiet.
“Family should mean something.”
I looked through the glass wall at Jenna Morales sitting with outside investigators.
“It does.”
“What?”
“It means Lucas never goes near Derek unsupervised again.”
Dad inhaled sharply.
“It means employees don’t have to accept abuse because the abuser shares my last name.”
“Virgil—”
“And it means I will not use company authority to save you from evidence.”
He hung up.
At one, Peterson Tech voluntarily notified its lenders that historic sales records were under review.
At two, outside counsel contacted federal authorities regarding potential fraudulent payments.
At three, my mother texted:
YOU’RE DESTROYING YOUR FATHER.
I replied:
NO. I’M STOPPING HIM FROM USING MY COMPANY TO HIDE HIMSELF.
Then I blocked her for the afternoon.
At four, I picked up Lucas.
He carried his new panda.
Mr. Bamboo’s cousin.
He had named him Mr. Fern.
“Did Uncle Derek get fired because of me?”
The question nearly broke my heart.
I pulled the car over.
“No.”
“He got mad because I took Grandpa’s silver thing.”
“You didn’t know it belonged to anybody.”
“He burned Mr. Bamboo.”
“Yes.”
“Then you found it.”
“Yes.”
“So I got him fired.”
“No.”
I turned toward him.
“Uncle Derek lost his job because of choices Uncle Derek made.”
Lucas studied my face.
“Even grown-ups get consequences?”
I almost laughed.
“Especially grown-ups.”
He nodded seriously.
Then hugged Mr. Fern.
That conversation mattered more than the entire board meeting.
At 6:30, Miriam called.
“We verified the North Harbor documents.”
“And?”
“Authentic.”
“Thomas?”
“His signature appears valid.”
My heartbeat shifted.
“Then how is he alive?”
“We don’t know that he is.”
“The note said—”
“I know.”
She paused.
“There’s another issue.”
“What?”
“Someone just exercised a contractual information right against Peterson Tech.”
I frowned.
“Who?”
“North Harbor Holdings.”
“That company was dissolved.”
“North Harbor Systems was.”
I pulled into my driveway.
“North Harbor Holdings is different?”
“Apparently.”
“How different?”
“It owns the original funding rights.”
My chest tightened.
“Rights to what?”
“Peterson Tech.”
I stopped moving.
“What percentage?”
“If the agreement survives legal review…”
Miriam went silent.
“How much?”
“Seventeen percent.”
I stared through the windshield.
Someone held a hidden seventeen-percent claim to the company I believed I had controlled for more than a decade.
“Who owns North Harbor Holdings?”
“We just received beneficial-owner disclosure.”
“Name.”
Miriam hesitated.
“Samuel Reed.”
The mystery partner.
“Can we locate him?”
“Yes.”
My stomach tightened.
“Where?”
“Massachusetts.”
“Who is he?”
Another pause.
“Virgil, Samuel Reed isn’t his original name.”
I closed my eyes.
“Of course it isn’t.”
“What was it?”
Miriam answered:
“Samuel Holloway.”
My eyes opened.
Holloway.
My last name.
“My relative?”
“I don’t know.”
But I did know one thing.
My father had claimed never to know Thomas Peterson’s mysterious partner.
A man carrying our family name.
Then headlights filled my driveway.
My father’s truck.
Frank stepped out.
But he wasn’t alone.
A thin gray-haired man climbed from the passenger side.
Frank looked toward my car.
May you like
The older man smiled.
And even from thirty feet away, I recognized my father’s eyes in another man’s face.
