Chapter 4 - The Emergency Boardroom
The executive boardroom on the twenty-ninth floor of Hayes Enterprises smelled of stale coffee, expensive leather, and blind panic.
Richard Hayes stood at the head of the long mahogany table, clutching a stack of financial printouts that were trembling so violently in his grip they made a rustling sound in the quiet room. Around him sat seven members of the board of directors, their faces pale, their ties loosened, all arguing simultaneously over ringing phones and buzzing tablets.
In the corner of the room, sitting on a leather sofa like defeated prisoners, were Clarissa and Brandon. Clarissa was wearing dark sunglasses to hide her swollen, red-rimmed eyes, holding a handkerchief tightly against her mouth. Brandon sat beside her, staring blankly at the glass wall that overlooked the misty city skyline. He looked like he hadn't slept a single second.
"Quiet down! Everyone, please, quiet down!" Richard shouted, slamming his hand onto the mahogany table. "The representative from Apex Capital will be here any minute! They hold the secondary credit facilities! If they agree to roll over our short-term obligations, we can halt the trading freeze before the market opens!"
"And what about Harrison Technologies?" one of the board members demanded angrily. "William Harrison pulled our primary supply contracts an hour ago! The market knows, Richard! Our stock is down forty percent in pre-market trading! Why did Harrison suddenly target us out of nowhere?!"
Richard’s face flushed a dark, guilty purple. His eyes flicked nervously toward his wife and son in the corner, but he remained silent. He couldn't bring himself to tell his board of directors that his family's entire business empire was being dismantled because his wife had slapped a girl at a party.
"It doesn't matter why!" Clarissa hissed from the sofa, pulling off her sunglasses to reveal a face distorted by bitterness. "William Harrison is a bully! He thinks he can use his wealth to crush us over a minor personal spat! Once Apex Capital injects the emergency capital, we will sue him for tortious interference!"
Before anyone could reply, the heavy frosted-glass doors of the boardroom swung open.
Two security guards tried to step forward, but Howard walked in first, his cold, commanding presence instantly halting them in their tracks.
"Clear the doorway," Howard said calmly.
Richard Hayes gasped, dropping his papers onto the table. "Howard? You... you're William Harrison's chief assistant! What are you doing here? This is a private meeting of the Hayes Enterprises board!"
"It was a private meeting, Mr. Hayes," Howard replied, stepping aside. "Until twenty minutes ago, when Apex Capital executed the assignment agreement transferring all primary credit rights, distressed assets, and board voting shares to our principal."
I walked into the room.
The sharp click of my black heels echoed through the silent boardroom. I stopped at the foot of the long mahogany table, setting my black leather briefcase down onto the dark wood. I leaned both hands on the table, looking slowly around the room—from the wide-eyed board members, to the trembling Richard Hayes, and finally to the sofa in the corner.
Brandon stood up so fast he nearly knocked over a glass side table.
"Emma?" he breathed, his voice cracking with utter disbelief.
Clarissa froze, her hand remaining glued to her mouth as she stared at me. Gone was the girl in the pale yellow clearance-aisle dress. Gone were the simple pearl studs and the quiet, timid posture. Standing before them in crisp, tailored black wool was the heir to a seventy-billion-dollar technology conglomerate, looking at them with eyes as cold as silver.
"Good morning, everyone," I said, my voice smooth and resonant. "I am Emma Harrison. I am taking over the chair."
A heavy, suffocating silence dropped over the room.
"H-Harrison?" one of the elderly board members stammered, looking frantically between Richard and me. "Richard... who is this?"
Richard looked like he was about to have a heart attack. He gripped the back of his executive chair, his knuckles white. "Emma... Miss Harrison... please. This is... we can talk about this in private. My wife... she made a terrible mistake last night. She didn't know—"
"I am not here to discuss your wife's lack of manners, Mr. Hayes," I interrupted coldly, opening my briefcase and pulling out a blue leather folder. "I am here as the primary creditor and majority voting power of Hayes Enterprises."
I tossed the folder onto the center of the table. It slid across the mahogany, stopping directly in front of Richard.
"What is this?" Richard asked, his voice shaking.
"That is your formal notice of default," I replied. "Apex Capital—which is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Harrison Investments—has called in all short-term loans, effective immediately. As you do not possess the twelve million dollars in cash reserves required to satisfy these notes, Harrison Capital has exercised its legal right to seize the pledged collateral."
"The collateral?" Richard gasped.
"This building," Howard supplied helpfully from beside me. "Your manufacturing equipment in the southern district. Your intellectual property patents. And fifty-one percent of the voting equity in this firm."
Clarissa sprang up from the sofa, her dark sunglasses dropping to the floor. "You can't do this! You're taking our entire life's work because of a stupid party dress?!"
I turned my gaze to Clarissa. The memory of her hand striking my face, the sound of the crowd laughing, and the cold air hitting my skin as my dress tore apart flashed through my mind, but I did not let a single trace of emotion show on my face.
"No, Mrs. Hayes," I said quietly, stepping around the table toward her. "I'm taking it because you believed you could abuse people without consequences. You stood under a chandelier last night and told me that girls like me don't belong in rooms like yours. You told me I failed your review."
May you like
I stopped two feet away from her. Clarissa flinched backward, her arrogance completely shattered, leaving behind only a terrified, pathetic old woman.
"Now," I whispered, looking her straight in the eye, "here is mine."
