Chapter 5 - AARON’S MOTHER WANTED HIM FIRED
Aaron read the board memorandum three times.
His face changed each time.
Disbelief.
Anger.
Then fear.
“You were trying to remove me?”
Melissa did not flinch.
“You nearly overpaid by sixty million dollars for Vela.”
“That acquisition was board-approved.”
“Because you controlled Claire’s votes.”
That silenced him.
“And you gave Jasmine influence over the process despite her conflict.”
Aaron looked at Jasmine’s loan documents.
His jaw tightened.
“You financed her?”
Melissa nodded.
“I did.”
“Why?”
“Because I thought she could manage you.”
I almost felt sorry for him.
Almost.
Aaron turned toward me.
“This family is insane.”
I stared.
“You are part of the family.”
The words sounded familiar because every betrayed spouse eventually reaches the same point.
You don’t get to stand beside the fire and complain about smoke after carrying gasoline.
Then Melissa explained her plan.
She never intended Jasmine to marry Aaron.
That surprised all of us.
Jasmine had been useful because Aaron listened to praise.
Melissa wanted someone near him who could slow his worst impulses.
Instead, Jasmine encouraged them.
More media.
More acquisitions.
More debt.
More attention.
Then they began sleeping together.
Melissa discovered the affair two months earlier.
She decided Aaron had become too compromised to remain CEO.
“Why didn’t you confront me?” Aaron asked.
“Because you interpret confrontation as betrayal.”
That one landed hard.
Then Nathan interrupted.
“None of this resolves Claire’s forged signature.”
Melissa finally looked uncomfortable.
Good.
She agreed Hawthorne would receive independent counsel, restored voting rights, and full access to governance records.
But I wanted one more answer.
“Why did you hate me?”
She looked surprised.
“I never hated you.”
“You treated me like furniture.”
“Because you refused to participate.”
“In what?”
“The family.”
I almost laughed.
“I hosted every Thanksgiving for three years.”
“That is not what I mean.”
Melissa meant Prescott Global.
She had expected me to join committees.
Attend investor dinners.
Take a foundation role.
Use my finance background inside the family business.
I refused.
I wanted one part of my life that did not belong to Aaron’s company.
Melissa interpreted independence as rejection.
“So you forged my signature.”
Her face tightened.
“I told you that was wrong.”
“No. You told me why you thought it was necessary.”
There is a difference between explanation and accountability.
Then Rachel’s phone buzzed.
She opened an email.
“What?”
Her expression changed.
Prescott Global’s outside auditors had flagged a payment.
$12.4 million.
Recipient:
COLE STRATEGIC MEDIA LLC.
Jasmine’s family again.
But this payment was not connected to Vela.
It had been authorized only forty-eight hours earlier.
At 1:08 a.m.
The night Aaron stayed out.
Aaron stared at the authorization.
“That wasn’t me.”
The approval used his executive credentials.
Jasmine went pale.
May you like
And suddenly the question was no longer whether Aaron had spent the night with her.
It was what someone had been doing with his login while he was there.
Related Stories
