Chapter 4 - Seven Votes Before Sunrise)
Nathan entered the Vale Global boardroom at six fifty-eight wearing his stained tuxedo and no tie.
The room occupied the entire seventy-second floor, with glass walls overlooking a city just beginning to turn gray. Eleven directors sat around the black table. Adrian stood at the far end beside Isabella, who had exchanged her wedding gown for a white suit. She looked less like a grieving bride than a queen arriving early for her coronation.
The surprise on their faces when Nathan walked in was worth nothing unless he could turn it into evidence.
"You should be in intensive care," Isabella said.
"You should be on your honeymoon," Nathan replied.
No one laughed.
Adrian addressed the directors. "Nathan's presence does not change the medical and ethical crisis before us. Last night he staged a collapse, secretly recorded his bride and accused company officers of an imaginary conspiracy. His instability now threatens shareholders."
He distributed a physician's report signed by Dr. Pryce. It described paranoid delusions, erratic decision-making and an acute mental break. The report was dated two days before the wedding.
"Efficient doctor," Nathan said. "He diagnosed me before examining me."
Board member Miriam Holt adjusted her glasses. She had served beside Nathan's father and rarely allowed emotion into a vote. "Is Dr. Pryce available to confirm this?"
"He has been detained after Nathan orchestrated an incident at the hospital," Adrian said.
Nathan laid a sealed copy of Pryce's syringe report on the table. "The incident was attempted murder."
Isabella pressed a hand to her mouth. "Listen to him. He believes everyone is trying to kill him."
"Not everyone. Just my bride, my partner and my cardiologist. It is a disappointingly small circle."
A few directors shifted. Doubt was not trust, but it was movement.
Adrian tapped the screen behind him. The wedding document appeared, carrying Nathan's electronic signature. Clause fourteen granted Isabella temporary exercise of Nathan's supervoting shares in the event of illness or incapacity. Clause sixteen allowed her to designate a corporate proxy. She had selected Adrian at 3:12 a.m.
Nathan's general counsel, Howard Voss, avoided his eyes.
"You reviewed this agreement," Nathan said.
Voss swallowed. "I reviewed a prior draft. The executed version came from your private account."
"And you failed to compare them."
"I believed the change was yours."
Rosa had been right. People obeyed powerful men into graves, and Nathan had built a company where obedience passed for competence.
"The signature is fraudulent," he said.
Adrian held up the audit certificate. "It was verified by your token, from your penthouse network, while wedding photographs place you in the room."
Six directors had already signed the motion to suspend Nathan. Adrian needed one more.
Miriam Holt held the deciding tablet.
Nathan could reveal Lucia's files. He could display Isabella in front of Rosa's locker. But the hidden drive had not been forensically copied, the chain of custody was vulnerable and the documents implicated Nathan's own signature in a fraud he had never discovered. If he exposed everything before securing the server data, Adrian would destroy the remaining accounts and flee behind layers of loyal employees.
So Nathan did the one thing Adrian had never expected.
"Vote for him," he told Miriam.
The room went still.
"Nathan," she said, "do you understand the motion?"
"Perfectly. Adrian believes the company can survive without me. Let him demonstrate."
Adrian watched him with open suspicion. Isabella did not. Relief softened her shoulders.
Miriam cast the seventh vote.
The screen changed from PENDING to APPROVED.
Effective immediately, Nathan Vale was suspended as chief executive, barred from corporate systems and prohibited from entering company property without board authorization. Adrian became acting chief executive. Isabella gained proxy control of Nathan's shares until a competency hearing.
Adrian slowly took Nathan's chair.
"Security will escort you out," he said.
Nathan removed his company access card and placed it on the table. "Before they do, I have one question. What is Blackthorn Advisory?"
Howard Voss looked confused. Two directors looked afraid.
Adrian did not blink. "A dormant vendor, I believe."
Isabella's hand tightened around her tablet.
That was all Nathan needed. She knew the name.
Security entered. Conrad Bell led them, his uniform sleeve covering the wrist that had appeared on Lucia's hidden camera.
As Conrad took Nathan's arm, Nathan said, "Your right cuff is wet. Strange, since the fire was in my home and you claim you were here."
Conrad released him as if burned.
Nathan allowed the guards to escort him through rows of employees arriving for work. News alerts were already appearing on their phones. BILLIONAIRE REMOVED HOURS AFTER WEDDING COLLAPSE. Cameras waited behind the lobby barricades.
Rosa stood across the street beside a black sedan. Mara sat at the wheel.
Nathan did not join them. He walked directly toward the reporters.
"Mr. Vale, did you fake a heart attack?"
"Did your wife poison you?"
"Are you mentally competent?"
Nathan stopped before the microphones. "At seven seventeen this morning, I was removed from the company I built. Mr. Adrian Cross now has every authority he has spent years trying to obtain. I wish him the courage to use it in daylight."
Then he walked away.
Inside the sedan, Mara handed him a laptop. Technicians had recovered part of Lucia's drive. A directory tree filled the screen, most files corrupted by the purge. One folder remained intact.
It was labeled WEDDING.
The creation date was six years earlier, a year before Nathan had met Isabella.
Inside was a photograph of her standing beside Adrian outside Lucia Delgado's funeral.
May you like
On the back, scanned in Lucia's handwriting, were seven words.
SHE HAS BEEN CHOSEN FOR NATHAN VALE.
