Chapter 7 - Shadows on Wall Street
While the Cold Spring estate was learning how to become a real home, the corporate corridors of Manhattan were boiling with quiet resentment.
In a private, wood-paneled lounge high above the financial district, three former executives of Cole Enterprises sat in deep discussion. At the center of them was Julian Vance. Stripped of his partnership at the legal firm and barred from representing Cole Enterprises, Julian had spent the past three months nursing a bitter grudge.
“Ethan thinks he’s untouchable,” Julian muttered, swirling amber whiskey in a crystal glass. “He’s dismantled the compliance division, redirected twenty million dollars into unvetted community grants, and spent half his time playing gardener in the Hudson Valley.”
“The board is paralyzed,” said Marcus Thorne, a disgruntled former shareholder who had lost his seat during Ethan’s restructuring. “Pendelton is eating out of Ethan's hand. If we don’t act before the annual shareholder meeting next month, Cole Enterprises will be permanently transformed into a philanthropic trust. Our investments will tank.”
“We don’t need the board,” Julian smiled coldly, leaning forward. “We need leverage.”
“What kind of leverage?” Thorne asked.
“Ethan’s new domestic obsession,” Julian replied smoothly. “The housekeeper, Maria Alvarez, and her child. Under corporate compliance rules that Ethan himself signed into effect years ago, any executive entering a domestic relationship with a subordinate without prior ethics disclosure faces an immediate mandatory audit and suspension of voting shares.”
“Do you have proof they’re in a relationship?” Thorne asked skeptically.
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“Does it matter?” Julian laughed darkly. “In Wall Street politics, perception is reality. If we leak a carefully curated narrative to the financial press—suggesting that the CEO is manipulating corporate funds to support a personal domestic arrangement on company grounds—the SEC will have to launch an inquiry. And while the investigation drags on, Ethan will be frozen out of the voting pool.”
Marcus Thorne grinned, raising his glass. “To the fall of Ethan Cole.”
