Chapter 4 - The Boardroom Assault
At 9:00 a.m. the following morning, the executive boardroom of Vance Enterprises was cold and quiet.
The company, which had once been a premier shipping and logistics firm in New York, was now a hollowed-out shell, kept alive only by the clean-energy patents I had personally developed over the last decade. My father had spent the last five years using the company’s capital to fund his lifestyle, while Sarah used the corporate accounts to pay for her PR campaigns and high-society galas.
When the glass doors slid open, my mother and Sarah walked in, followed by their personal attorney, a sharp-faced man named Gerald Vance (no relation, but a long-time family cleaner).
Sarah looked exhausted, her face pale beneath her heavy makeup, her hair pulled back into a tight, defensive ponytail. She was no longer wearing the rented diamonds or the ivory silk. She was in a simple black suit, but her eyes were still burning with the same arrogant fury.
"Elena," Gerald Vance began, clearing his throat as he sat down opposite me. "Let’s not make this more dramatic than it needs to be. Your sister’s actions last night were unfortunate, yes, but they were the result of an accidental collision in a high-stress environment. The child spilled liquid on a highly valuable, custom-designed—"
"Gerald," I interrupted, my voice dropping to a low, quiet level that immediately cut him off. "If you use the word 'accidental' one more time in this room, I will have Arthur Blackwood file the criminal assault charges against my sister before we reach the end of this sentence."
Sarah slammed her hand on the table. "You wouldn't dare! The scandal would ruin the family name! The stock—"
"The stock of Vance Enterprises is currently trading at three dollars and fifty cents a share, Sarah," I said, sliding a tablet across the table toward her. "And seventy percent of those shares are currently owned by Zenith Heritage Holdings. I don't care about the family name. The family name is associated with debt, fraud, and child abuse. I am rebranding the logistics division under the Vega-Zenith name next week."
My mother sat silently, her face white, her fingers twitching as she stared at the tablet. "Elena... you are my daughter. How can you be so cold? Everything we did, we did to preserve the legacy your grandfather built."
"No, Mother," I said, looking her straight in the eyes. "Everything you did, you did to preserve your invitations to the summer galas in the Hamptons. You watched your daughter kick my child. You watched her fall to the floor, and instead of checking on her, you slapped me. You called me a disgrace."
"You were always difficult!" my mother hissed, her old, venomous arrogance flaring up. "You were always the quiet, awkward one, hiding in the library, refusing to play the part of a Vance! Sarah was the one who brought life to this house! She was the one who deserved the inheritance!"
"And look where her life has brought you," I said, leaning back in my chair. "Today, Sarah’s employment with Vance Enterprises is terminated for cause. Her corporate car, her expense account, and her health insurance are revoked effective immediately."
"You can't fire me!" Sarah shrieked, standing up. "I am the head of public relations!"
"You are the head of a department that no longer exists," Arthur Blackwood spoke up from beside me, sliding a stack of termination papers across the table. "Furthermore, the corporate housing agreement for the apartment in SoHo has been cancelled. You have twenty-four hours to remove your personal belongings before the locks are changed."
"Gerald!" Sarah screamed, turning to her attorney. "Do something! This is illegal!"
Gerald Vance looked at the termination documents, then looked at Blackwood, and finally looked down at his own hands. He was a smart man; he knew when a case was utterly unwinnable.
"Ms. Vance," Gerald said quietly, looking at Sarah. "Under the terms of the corporate restructuring agreement your mother signed last year, the majority shareholder has unilateral authority over all employment and housing allocations. There is nothing I can do legally to stop this."
"You... you traitor!" Sarah yelled, her face turning red. "Elena, I will destroy you! I will go to the press! I will tell them how you stole this company from your own family!"
"Go ahead, Sarah," I said, my voice completely indifferent. "The security footage from the ballroom is already backed up on three different secure servers. If you write one article, if you make one post, that footage will be on the front page of every news site in the country. Let’s see how many high-society friends invite you to their dinners when they see you kicking an eight-year-old girl."
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Sarah sat back down slowly, her breath coming in shallow, terrified gasps. For the first time in her life, she had no words. She had no mother to protect her, no family name to hide behind, and no money to buy her way out.
She was finally just Sarah: empty, powerless, and completely alone.
