Chapter 5 - The Chairman’s Room
Arthur Bennett’s penthouse at the top of the Bennett Flagship Tower overlooked the entire city skyline. The room was decorated in dark leather, heavy brass, and oil paintings of ships—the mark of a man who believed power was inherited, not earned.
When Daniel walked in without being announced, Arthur didn't look up from his mahogany desk. He was signing a stack of corporate press releases.
"You're trespassing, Daniel," Arthur said coldly. "The security team downstairs should have escorted you off the premises."
"They tried," Daniel said, tossing a manila envelope onto the desk. It landed directly over the press releases. "Geno handled them."
Arthur slowly raised his eyes. "You hit my daughter in a room full of our primary investors. You humiliated this family."
"Your daughter threw a child down a flight of stone steps to trigger a corporate takeover clause," Daniel replied. "Open the envelope, Arthur."
Arthur didn't touch it. "Vanessa told me about your little video bluff. A blurry security angle won't hold up against ten eyewitnesses who saw you attack her at the bottom of the stairs."
"It's not blurry," Daniel said, leaning over the desk until he was eye-to-eye with the old man. "And it's not the only thing in that envelope."
Arthur hesitated, then pulled the clasp open and pulled out a stack of financial ledger printouts.
"What is this?"
"That's the real reason you and Vanessa needed my shares before the end of the fourth quarter," Daniel said. "Caroline didn't die of an unexpected infection four years ago, did she?"
Arthur’s hand visibly trembled as he held the paper.
"She was the head of the audit committee for Bennett Hotels," Daniel continued, his voice tight with restrained emotion. "She found a twelve-million-dollar hole in the European development fund. A hole created by your son, Julian, before he fled to Dubai."
"Caroline's death was a medical tragedy," Arthur said, though his voice had lost its authoritative edge.
"Caroline was misdiagnosed by a clinic funded directly by the Bennett Family Foundation," Daniel countered. "I spent the last three hours going through her archived emails on the hospital network. She sent you three warnings about the audit the week before she was admitted."
May you like
"You have no proof of medical negligence," Arthur snapped, standing up and leaning on his silver-topped cane.
"I have enough to force an exhumation and an independent review," Daniel said. "And if the SEC gets a look at these ledgers, Bennett Grand Hotels won't survive until the end of the week. You won't just lose the company, Arthur. You'll die in a federal prison."
