Chapter 5 - The Corporate Execution
Back in Manhattan forty-eight hours later, the boardroom of Sterling Financial Group on the eightieth floor was packed to maximum capacity.
Every senior partner, regional director, and board member sat in absolute, suffocating silence around the massive mahogany table. At the head of the table sat Nathan Sterling. But to his immediate right—in the seat previously reserved for the chief legal officer or the family trustee—sat Grace Ashford.
She wore a charcoal-gray tailored suit, her hair pulled back into a sleek bun, her folders organized with lethal precision in front of her.
The heavy double doors opened, and two security guards escorted Evelyn Vance into the room. Evelyn looked disheveled, her hair unbrushed, her designer suit wrinkled from forty-eight hours in a holding cell. When she saw Grace sitting at the head of the table alongside Nathan, she stopped dead in her tracks.
"Nathan," Evelyn stammered, looking around the room at the cold, judging faces of the board members. "You can't do this. This is a private family dispute—"
"It stopped being a family dispute the moment you committed wire fraud, forgery, and kidnapping under the color of corporate authority," Nathan said, his voice devoid of any human emotion. He tossed a thick manila folder onto the center of the table. "Federal prosecutors have already been briefed. The indictment was signed an hour ago."
Evelyn paled, grabbing the back of a chair to stay upright. "Nathan, think of the firm! Think of what this will do to our stock price if the press finds out the chief counsel was running a baby-trafficking and falsification ring for your mother!"
"The firm will survive," Nathan said coldly. "Because as of this morning, my mother has resigned from the board of directors, and her shares have been transferred into a irrevocable trust managed by Grace."
Grace looked up from her documents, her eyes locking onto Evelyn’s trembling form.
"You thought I was just a poor waitress from a small town who would take a fifty-thousand-dollar check and disappear," Grace said, her voice clear and resonant in the cavernous boardroom. "You underestimated what a mother will do when her children are stolen from her."
"I was just following orders!" Evelyn shrieked, panic breaking through her professional veneer.
"And now you'll follow them straight to a federal penitentiary," Nathan stated flatly. "Take her away."
The guards moved in, grabbing Evelyn by the arms and dragging her out of the boardroom as she wept and screamed, her legal career, her fortune, and her freedom evaporating in a matter of seconds.
The heavy doors clicked shut.
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Silence descended upon the boardroom once more. Nathan looked around at the stunned faces of his board members, then turned his head to look at Grace.
"The restructuring of the executive board is complete," Nathan announced to the room. "Grace Ashford is now co-chair of the Sterling Foundation and holds controlling veto power over all corporate asset allocations. Meeting adjourned."
