Chapter 7 - The Boardroom Reclamation
At 1:55 PM, the glass double doors of the top-floor boardroom at Stratford Dynamics Tower swung open.
Inside, fourteen members of the board of directors sat around a sixty-foot polished mahogany table. The room was in complete, utter panic. Phones were buzzing constantly, news broadcasts were muted on the giant wall monitors showing headlines of Marcus’s arrest, and stock tickers showed Stratford Dynamics shares plummeting twenty-eight percent in early trading.
When Linda walked into the room, accompanied by Sarah Vance and two court-appointed forensic auditors, every single director stood up.
Some looked embarrassed. Some looked terrified. A few who had been loyal to her father looked at her with tears of relief in their eyes.
Linda walked directly to the head of the table—the leather chair where Marcus had sat for the last three years, bragging about his achievements while draining the company dry.
She pulled out the chair and sat down.
“Gentlemen. Lady,” Linda said, her voice clear, commanding, and utterly devoid of fear. “Please take your seats.”
The directors scrambled back into their chairs like school children.
“As you are aware,” Linda began, opening a blue state-certified folder, “Marcus Stratford’s executive authority has been stripped by order of the State Chancery Court. Effective twenty minutes ago, I have been appointed Receiver and Interim CEO.”
An older director, who had voted to remove Linda three years ago under pressure from Marcus, leaned forward timidly. “Linda... Mrs. Stratford... the market is panicking. The banks are threatening to call in our short-term credit lines by 5:00 PM. If we can’t reassure Wall Street, the stock will collapse completely by tomorrow morning.”
Linda looked at the man evenly.
“The market is panicking because they think Marcus was the brain behind this firm,” Linda said. “At 2:30 PM, I will be holding an international press conference in the lobby. I will announce that Project Hades has been isolated, the stolen pension funds have been fully traced and recovered by state authorities, and that I am resuming direct operational control.”
She leaned forward, resting her hands flat on the polished wood.
“Furthermore, I am announcing a fifteen-million-dollar stock buyback program funded directly from Marcus’s seized personal liquid accounts, which have been remanded to the company to settle his civil liabilities.”
The directors looked at each other in sheer astonishment.
“You... you recovered the Cayman accounts?” another director gasped.
“I didn't just recover them,” Linda replied with a razor-thin smile. “I transferred the authorization keys to the court custody account three hours ago. Marcus spent three years trying to hide that money. It took me forty-five minutes to bring it back.”
She stood up, buttoning her navy jacket.
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“Now,” Linda commanded. “Clear out Marcus’s personal office on the forty-fifth floor. Have his belongings packed into cardboard boxes and left on the curb for his attorneys to pick up. I want my father’s desk moved back into that room by 4:00 PM.”
The directors didn't hesitate. They stood up and began executing her orders with a speed the company hadn't seen in a decade.
