Chapter 4 - The Boardroom Exposure
Three days later, the air inside the executive suite of Foster & Sterling Wealth Management was cool and quiet.
Derek sat at his desk, his eyes bloodshot, his suit slightly wrinkled. He had spent the last three nights sleeping on the uncomfortable pull-out couch in Suzanne’s tiny, cluttered one-bedroom apartment. Without access to Skylar’s credit cards, he had been forced to pay for his own food and gas, quickly realizing how little money actually remained in his personal checking account.
His phone rang. It was his firm’s senior partner, Arthur Sterling.
“Derek, get into the main boardroom immediately,” Sterling’s voice commanded, brief and cold.
Derek straightened his tie, smoothed his hair, and put on his practiced, charm-filled smile. He assumed it was about the quarter-end investment portfolios. He was confident he could talk his way through anything at work—he was a master of appearances, after all.
He pushed open the heavy mahogany doors of the executive boardroom.
Sitting at the center of the thirty-foot conference table were Arthur Sterling, the head of human resources, the firm’s chief legal officer... and Eleanor Vance.
Beside Eleanor sat Skylar.
Her left cheek and neck were covered in a neat, skin-toned medical dressing. She wore an elegant dark-green tailored suit that complemented her soft auburn hair. She sat with her hands folded calmly over a leather folder. She did not look afraid. She did not look broken. She looked like a woman who had stripped away a heavy weight and stepped into her true power.
Derek’s heart slammed against his ribs. “Skylar? What... what are you doing here?”
“Sit down, Derek,” Arthur Sterling said, his voice flat as ice.
Derek took a seat at the far end of the table, his mind racing. “Arthur, whatever she’s telling you, it’s a private domestic dispute. It has nothing to do with my performance at this firm—”
“Silence,” Sterling snapped, slamming a heavy folder onto the table.
“Mr. Foster,” the chief legal officer spoke up, pushing a laptop across the glossy table toward Derek. “An hour ago, Ms. Vance delivered a formal notice of criminal indictment and civil litigation filed against you. Included in that filing was a subpoena for your corporate expense accounts.”
Derek felt cold sweat break out across his neck. “My expense accounts?”
“It appears,” Eleanor Vance stated smoothly, leaning forward, “that Mr. Foster has been submitting corporate entertainment receipts for client dinners that never took place. Over the last two years, he reimbursed himself for over $40,000 using corporate funds—funds he then transferred directly into his sister Suzanne’s bank account to cover her personal debts.”
Derek’s breath hitched. “That’s... that’s a lie! That’s an accounting error!”
“We’ve already run the audit, Derek,” Arthur Sterling said, disgust evident in his eyes. “Our accounting department confirmed the fraud thirty minutes ago. You stole from this firm to enable your family’s lifestyle, and you used your wife’s personal funds to cover the gaps whenever our internal systems flagged your overdrafts.”
Sterling stood up, towering over the table.
“Furthermore, this firm will not employ a man currently under criminal indictment for felony domestic violence and financial fraud,” Sterling declared, his voice echoing off the glass walls. “You are terminated immediately for cause, Mr. Foster. Your licenses are being revoked, and we are handing our internal audit over to the District Attorney’s office.”
Derek sat paralyzed as two security guards stepped into the boardroom.
“Please hand over your access keycard and clear out your desk,” the HR director said coldly. “You have ten minutes before you are escorted off the premises.”
Derek looked at Skylar, his face pale, his eyes wide with a mixture of terror and desperate plea. “Skylar... please. Talk to them. We’re married! You’re destroying my life!”
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Skylar looked directly into the eyes of the man who had burned her face and told her she was nothing.
“You destroyed your own life, Derek,” Skylar said, her voice smooth, quiet, and absolutely unflinching. “I am simply letting the world see who you really are.”
