Chapter 5 - The Takeover
Within a week, the forty-eight-hour deadline passed. Ethan Caldwell could not raise even ten percent of the money he owed.
On Monday morning, I walked into the headquarters of Caldwell Tech. For the first time in my life, I wasn't wearing the simple, soft clothes of a supportive housewife. I wore a tailored, sharp charcoal suit. My hair was tied back tightly, and my expression was focused. Behind me were Robert Vance and a team of financial auditors from Whitmore Industries.
The employees in the office stopped talking as we walked through the glass doors. They all knew what was happening. News of the company's financial collapse had leaked to the tech blogs over the weekend.
We walked straight into the main boardroom. Ethan was already there, sitting at the head of the table. He looked terrible. His eyes were bloodshot, his clothes looked unwashed, and his hands were shaking. He was staring at his phone, but when the door opened, he jumped up.
"Emma," he said, his voice cracking. "You're really going through with this?"
"This isn't Emma," Robert Vance stepped forward, placing a thick stack of transfer documents on the table. "This is Ms. Whitmore, the new majority shareholder and Chairperson of this company. Sit down, Mr. Caldwell."
Ethan sank back into his chair, looking small.
I took the seat directly opposite him. "Let’s keep this businesslike, Ethan. As of 9:00 AM today, Whitmore Holdings has executed the conversion clause of our loan. Due to non-payment, your seventy percent founder's share has been reduced to zero. The company is now fully owned by me."
"I built this software!" Ethan shouted, slamming his hand on the table. "It's my intellectual property! You can't just steal my life's work!"
"You didn't build it alone, Ethan. You hired brilliant developers whom you haven't paid in two months because you used the payroll account to buy top-tier virtual items for your gaming account," I said, sliding a financial audit sheet toward him. "Look at the numbers. You spent eighty thousand dollars of company funds last month alone on 'League of Champions' microtransactions. You classified it as 'market research.' Is that what you call it?"
The developers and managers who were sitting in the room gasped. They had been told the company was struggling because of market conditions, not because their CEO was gambling away their salaries on mobile games.
"You... you spied on me," Ethan whispered, his face turning red.
"No, I audited you," I corrected him. "And because of this gross misuse of company funds, you are not just being removed as CEO. You are being fired for cause. You have thirty minutes to clear your desk. If you try to download any company data or code, our security team will have you arrested immediately."
Ethan looked around the room, looking for support from his senior executives. But his CTO, a man who had worked eighteen hours a day to keep the software running, just looked away in disgust.
"You're a monster, Emma," Ethan hissed, his voice full of venom. "You're destroying my life because of one mistake."
"One mistake?" I leaned forward, my eyes locking onto his. "You ignored me during twenty hours of labor. You ignored our daughter's first breath. You watched your mother hit me, and your only concern was your ranked gaming match. That wasn't a mistake, Ethan. That was your true character. And today, your character has finally caught up with your reality."
May you like
I stood up, signaling the end of the meeting. "Goodbye, Ethan. Enjoy your games. You have plenty of free time for them now."
He was escorted out of the building by two large security guards, holding nothing but a small cardboard box filled with his personal items. As he stood on the sidewalk outside his former company, his phone vibrated in his hand. It was a notification from his game, reminding him that a new tournament was starting. He threw the phone against the brick wall, watching it shatter into a hundred pieces.
