Chapter 2 - MY HUSBAND HAD BEEN VOTING MY SHARES
For three years, Aaron had mocked me for reading contracts slowly.
Apparently he should have tried it.
Nathan and I spent the next four hours tracing Hawthorne’s position.
The ownership itself was intact.
Nobody had stolen my shares.
Something subtler had happened.
Hawthorne Capital had invested through an older partnership structure created by my grandfather.
That partnership had appointed a proxy for certain corporate votes involving Prescott Global.
Originally, the proxy belonged to my grandfather.
After his death, the authority should have expired.
Instead, eighteen months later, an updated proxy appeared.
Signed:
CLAIRE BENNETT PRESCOTT.
I stared at it.
“That isn’t mine.”
Nathan looked at me.
“You’re sure?”
“I have never signed a voting proxy for Aaron.”
The document gave my husband authority to vote the Hawthorne-held Prescott shares for five years.
Five years.
Our entire marriage.
Nathan’s voice became careful.
“We need the original.”
Hawthorne’s general counsel sent it within the hour.
My electronic signature was perfect.
Because it had been copied from another document.
Three months after our wedding, I had signed a routine acknowledgment relating to my grandfather’s estate.
Somebody had lifted that signature.
Then I noticed the witness.
Melissa Prescott.
Aaron’s mother.
My stomach went cold.
“His mother witnessed this?”
Nathan said nothing.
We both understood what that meant.
Not proof she forged it.
Proof she was standing somewhere near the transaction.
Aaron called again.
This time I answered.
“Claire.”
He sounded furious.
“Did you seriously post our private business to five hundred employees?”
“You mean your private business with your Vice President?”
“Nothing happened last night.”
I almost laughed.
“You came home at seven the previous four times.”
“Jasmine and I were working.”
“At hotels?”
Silence.
There it was.
Then he changed tactics.
“You embarrassed the company.”
“No. I embarrassed you.”
“They’re the same thing.”
That sentence explained our marriage better than therapy ever had.
“Aaron, do you know what Meridian Strategic Holdings is?”
Silence.
Then:
“Why?”
Not What is that?
Why?
He knew.
“Answer me.”
“It’s an investment vehicle.”
“Whose?”
“I don’t know.”
Another lie.
Nathan was recording the call with proper notice procedures already in place.
I continued.
“Did you ever vote shares belonging to Meridian?”
Aaron stopped speaking.
“Aaron.”
“My father handled governance.”
“You are CEO.”
“That doesn’t mean I memorize every proxy.”
“Did you use my signature?”
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
Good.
Maybe true.
Then he added:
“My mother gave legal everything they needed.”
My stomach tightened.
“Your mother?”
“She said your grandfather approved the arrangement.”
“My grandfather was dead.”
Aaron exhaled.
“Claire, whatever this is, don’t turn it into another drama.”
Another drama.
The phrase almost made me smile.
Then Nathan slid another document toward me.
A board vote from eleven months earlier.
Prescott Global had approved a $75 million acquisition.
The vote barely passed.
Meridian’s shares had been voted in favor.
By Aaron.
Without those votes, the acquisition would have failed.
I knew the deal.
Everyone in Boston did.
Prescott Global had purchased a luxury hospitality technology company called Vela Systems.
The acquisition had been Aaron’s obsession.
And it was performing terribly.
Then Nathan looked at the disclosure schedule.
“Claire.”
“What now?”
“Jasmine owned shares in Vela.”
My heart stopped.
Before joining Prescott Global, Jasmine had personally invested in the company Aaron later purchased.
May you like
The acquisition had paid her almost $4 million.
And Aaron had used my hidden voting rights to help approve it.
Related Stories
