Chapter 4 - THE WOMAN SITTING OUTSIDE MY OFFICE
Rebecca had worked for Claire for five years.
She knew her calendar.
Her passwords.
Her travel schedule.
Her medications.
She also knew which board members distrusted Grant.
Claire wanted to confront her.
Noah stopped her.
“If Rebecca believes you know, she’ll erase whatever she can reach.”
“So I smile at her?”
“Yes.”
“I’m getting tired of smiling at people who are betraying me.”
Noah’s expression softened.
“I imagine.”
The next morning Claire entered Alder Row headquarters as though nothing had happened.
Rebecca stood immediately.
“Good morning.”
“Morning.”
“You have the Carson call at nine, compensation committee at eleven, and Grant asked whether you’re free for lunch.”
Claire almost laughed.
“Did he?”
“Yes.”
“Tell him one.”
Rebecca smiled.
“Of course.”
Claire walked into her office and closed the door.
Hannah was already waiting.
“You deserve an Oscar.”
“I want to throw up.”
They created a test.
Claire drafted a completely fictional acquisition proposal involving a small Atlanta cybersecurity company.
Only four people received the document.
Claire.
Hannah.
Rebecca.
Grant.
The proposed purchase price was deliberately unusual.
$17.4 million.
If that number appeared anywhere outside Alder Row, they would know.
It took less than six hours.
At 4:17 p.m., Noah called.
“A competitor contacted the Atlanta company.”
Claire’s jaw tightened.
“What offer?”
“Seventeen-point-six million.”
Close enough.
“Who leaked it?”
“That’s the interesting part.”
The file sent outside Alder Row came from Rebecca’s workstation.
Claire closed her eyes.
Then Noah continued.
“But Rebecca didn’t send it.”
“How do you know?”
“She was in your eleven o’clock committee meeting when the transfer occurred.”
“Remote access?”
“Yes.”
“Grant?”
“No.”
Claire stopped.
“Who?”
“Daniel Keene.”
Alder Row’s chief financial officer.
Claire sat back.
Daniel had been with her for nine years.
He attended her father’s memorial fundraiser every spring.
He knew the company’s deepest financial structure.
Hannah swore.
Claire whispered, “Bring him in.”
Daniel entered twenty minutes later.
He was fifty-two, normally immaculate, suddenly sweating.
Claire shut the blinds.
“Sit.”
He did.
She placed the transfer log in front of him.
His face collapsed.
“I’m sorry.”
Hannah took a step toward him.
Claire held up her hand.
“Why?”
Daniel covered his face.
“Grant found something.”
“What?”
“My son.”
Claire’s anger paused.
Daniel’s twenty-three-year-old son had struggled with addiction.
Two years earlier he had been arrested.
The charges disappeared.
Claire had assumed Daniel’s attorney handled it.
“Grant paid someone,” Daniel said. “He got the case reduced. Then he kept the original police report.”
“And threatened you.”
“Yes.”
“What did he make you do?”
Daniel’s voice shook.
“Financial models. Shareholder projections. Information about your trust distributions.”
“Anything else?”
His eyes filled with shame.
“He asked how Alder Row would function if you couldn’t serve as CEO.”
Claire went cold.
“What did you tell him?”
“The board could appoint an interim chief executive.”
“Who?”
“That depends on the board.”
“Who does Grant want?”
Daniel looked at Hannah.
“No.”
Hannah whispered it.
Daniel nodded.
“Grant wants you removed too.”
Then he produced a folded piece of paper from his pocket.
“I received this yesterday.”
It was notice of a special emergency board meeting.
Scheduled for Friday.
Agenda:
EXECUTIVE CAPACITY AND CONTINUITY.
Claire had not called the meeting.
As CEO and controlling shareholder, she should have been notified immediately.
She read the signature at the bottom.
Board Chairman Stephen Mercer.
Her godfather.
May you like
The man who had promised Claire’s dying father he would always protect her.
And according to Daniel, Stephen had been meeting privately with Grant for six months.
