Chapter 10 - The Boardroom
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Instead of driving back to my compromised home, I steered my car toward the financial district. I pulled into the private underground parking garage of the towering glass skyscraper that housed Hawthorne Capital.
I bypassed the main lobby and took the private executive elevator directly to the top floor. The heavy mahogany doors slid open, and I stepped out onto the plush carpet.
The receptionist, a young man who had only been with the firm for a year, looked up in confusion. Before he could speak, my CEO, David Vance, stepped out of his corner office.
David’s eyes widened slightly at my new haircut, but he quickly masked his surprise with a look of profound respect. “Mrs. Vale. We’ve been expecting you.”
He escorted me down the long, sunlit corridor toward the main boardroom. As I walked in, twelve of my senior employees—the heads of legal, acquisitions, collections, and fraud—immediately stood up from their leather chairs in unison.
I had stayed completely publicly retired after Daniel’s tragic death, purposefully allowing David to act as the firm’s public face. Michael knew Hawthorne only as the merciless, faceless corporate lender that was aggressively refusing to forgive his massive debt. He had absolutely no idea that the controlling shareholder, the woman pulling the strings of his financial ruin, was his own mother.
“Please, be seated,” I said, taking my rightful place at the head of the massive obsidian table.
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The room sat down simultaneously. The air was electric, thick with anticipation. These were sharks, and they knew there was blood in the water.
“We have a situation regarding the Vale and Sterling accounts,” I began, my voice ringing with authority. “And it requires our immediate, absolute destruction of their assets.”
