Chapter 3 - The Boardroom Ambush
By nine o'clock the following morning, the emergency board meeting of Vance Dynamics was called to order. The air in the executive conference room was thick with tension. Stockholders, major institutional investors, and foreign delegates sat around the long mahogany table, whispering frantically as news of the factory shutdowns leaked into the financial markets. Vance Dynamics stock was already plummeting twelve percent in pre-market trading.
Silas sat at the head of the table, struggling to maintain his composure, flanked by Odalys and his legal team.
"Ladies and gentlemen, please," Silas announced, tapping his microphone. "This is merely a temporary union dispute orchestrated by disgruntled former contractors. Our legal team is filing an emergency injunction as we speak—"
The heavy double doors at the back of the boardroom clicked open.
Wren stepped into the room. She wore a tailored black maternity suit, her hair pulled back neatly, her expression calm, cold, and unreadable. Though faint bruising was still visible along her neck, she walked with an undeniable, quiet authority.
Beside her walked Marcus Osei, wearing a sharp, dark blue suit that looked broad and heavy on his muscular frame. Behind them marched two senior investigators from the Securities and Exchange Commission and four uniformed officers.
Silas stood up, his chair scraping loudly against the floor. "Wren? What is the meaning of this? You are not authorized to bring outsiders into a private board session!"
"I own twenty-five percent of this company's voting shares, Silas," Wren said, her voice clear and resonance filling the vast room. "And as the lead engineer who holds fifteen prime patents registered under Vance Dynamics, I have every right to address our shareholders."
"She's emotionally unstable!" Odalys blurted out from the side, standing up to face her. "She dragged herself out of a hospital bed after a panic attack to sabotage her husband's work!"
Marcus stepped forward, his eyes locking onto Odalys. The sheer pressure of his gaze made the younger woman instantly freeze, the words catching in her throat.
"My daughter didn't have a panic attack," Marcus said, his deep voice cutting through the whispers like an industrial saw. "She was assaulted in a locked hospital room by a trespasser attempting to enforce an illegal corporate extortion document."
Marcus gestured to the SEC investigators, who immediately dropped four thick binders in front of the board members.
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"For ten years," Marcus continued, resting his thick hands on the back of Wren's chair, "Silas Vance has claimed that the rapid growth of Vance Dynamics was built on clever financial engineering and market expansion. But financial engineering doesn't turn steel, and spreadsheets don't generate torque."
He pointed a finger directly at Silas. "You took my daughter’s designs, stripped her name off the primary development records, and leveraged those innovations to secure fraudulent loans from Kade Capital. You thought her father was just an uneducated grease-monkey who wouldn't notice when you cooked the books."
