Chapter 5 - The Emergency Boardroom
The top floor of the Albright Global Headquarters overlooked the skyline of downtown Los Angeles. Sunlight streamed through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, illuminating the massive mahogany conference table where twelve senior board members sat in tense, nervous silence.
News headlines from overnight were displayed on every smartphone in the room:
ALBRIGHT GLOBAL CEO ARRESTED FOR EMBEZZLEMENT AND POISONING SCHEME
THE MISTRESS IN THE STOLEN DRESS: BEVERLY HILLS SCANDAL EXPOSED LIVE
STOCK PRICES FOR ALBRIGHT GLOBAL PLUMMET 35% IN PRE-MARKET TRADING
The room was filled with panic. Vice President Marcus Vance—no relation to Brenda, but long-time ally of Christopher—was pacing back and forth nervously.
"If we don't name an acting CEO within the next hour, the SEC will suspend trading on our stock entirely!" Marcus shouted, banging his fist on the table. "Christopher is in federal custody! His bail was set at five million dollars and he can't pay it because his accounts are frozen!"
"And what about the sixty-eight million?" another board member asked, pale with anxiety. "Is it recoverable?"
"Not unless we have the original master key codes to the offshore accounts," Marcus sighed, rubbing his temples. "Which only Christopher and his assistant had."
Suddenly, the heavy glass doors of the boardroom slid open.
I walked into the room.
I wore a crisp, tailored navy blue suit, my grandmother’s original pearl necklace—which Luke had retrieved from the police evidence locker that morning after Brenda was stripped of her stolen jewelry—around my neck. Behind me walked Luke, carrying a sleek black briefcase, followed by a team of three top-tier corporate attorneys from Gibson Dunn.
The entire board stood up in shock.
"Vivian?" Marcus stammered, his jaw nearly touching the floor. "We... we heard you were hospitalized—"
"I was sedated, Marcus," I said, walking directly to the head of the table—the seat Christopher had occupied for the last eight years. I pulled out the leather high-backed chair and sat down slowly, resting my hands on the pristine mahogany surface. "Not incapacitated."
"Vivian, with all due respect," Marcus said, trying to regain his composure, "this is a corporate crisis. You’ve been away from company operations for years. We need seasoned management to navigate the financial ruin your husband created."
I looked at Marcus with a cold, piercing glare that made him freeze in his tracks.
"My husband didn't create this company, Marcus. My father did. And every single contract this company holds was signed using my family’s trust as collateral."
I gestured to my lead attorney, who immediately distributed legal packets to every board member.
"As of seven o'clock this morning," I continued, "the voting shares previously held in trust by Christopher Albright have been legally revoked due to gross criminal breach of fiduciary duty. I now hold sixty-four percent of all voting shares in Albright Global."
The board members hastily flipped through the documents, their eyes widening at the rock-solid legal filings.
"Furthermore," I added, glancing at Luke, who opened his tablet and projected a live financial interface onto the boardroom screen, "the sixty-eight million dollars Christopher and Brenda attempted to funnel into Liechtenstein has already been intercepted and re-routed back to our primary liquidity accounts."
Gasps filled the room.
"How?" Marcus asked, utterly stunned. "That offshore bank requires high-level encryption keys!"
"My son wrote the security protocols for that bank’s cloud network when he was sixteen," I said with a slight, confident smile. "They didn't realize they were trying to hide money in a system my son built."
Luke looked at the board members calmly. "The accounts are secured. Trading will resume safely by noon. But there are going to be immediate changes to the executive structure of this board."
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I leaned forward, looking around the room. "Starting today, Christopher Albright is officially removed from all positions within this enterprise. And anyone in this room who knew about his activities with Brenda Vance will have their resignations on my desk by noon, or face federal investigation as co-conspirators."
Three board members immediately bowed their heads, their hands shaking as they pulled out their pens.
