Chapter 3 - The Boardroom Execution
Every keyboard stopped.
Derek Lawson stepped forward from the conference room, adjusting his cuffs, trying to project the polished swagger of a decisive manager.
"I did," Derek said smoothly. "I conducted an emergency headcount audit, Claire. Cole was underperforming, resistant to my cultural shifts, and spending company time on non-billable client hand-holding. I streamlined our overhead."
Claire stood rooted to the spot. Her umbrella slid from her hand, clattering against the carpet. Her face turned from pale confusion to a terrifying, icy marble.
"You streamlined our overhead," Claire repeated, her voice dropping into a register that made the hair on the back of Derek’s neck stand up.
"Yes," Derek said, though his confident posture began to fracture under her glare. "I realized he was a senior analyst, but—"
"No," Claire said coldly, taking three deliberate steps toward him. "He was not just a senior operations analyst. He was the man who founded Crestline Dynamics twenty-one years ago in a Milwaukee garage. He owns eighty-two percent of this company. He owns this building. He owns the chair you're standing on, and he owns the house your boss lives in!"
The silence in the office became deafening.
Derek’s hand froze on his gold pen. His jaw went slack. "What... what did you say?"
"Ethan Cole is the majority shareholder of the entire tech group," Claire shouted, her voice shaking with rage and disbelief. "When our central server bank froze during the blizzard last winter—when we were ten seconds away from losing sixty million dollars in hospital contracts—Ethan stayed in the basement for thirty-six hours straight, manually rerouting power grids in his coat so the rest of us didn't lose our jobs!"
Derek’s knees visibly buckled. "He... he drove an eleven-year-old Subaru..."
"Because he lost his wife five years ago, and he spends his life trying to give his daughter a normal upbringing away from corporate sharks like you!" Claire snapped. She stepped straight into Derek's face. "You didn't fire an underperforming analyst, Derek. You just fired the owner of the entire empire."
Before Derek could faint, Claire pulled her phone from her coat and dialed a private, encrypted number.
"Malcolm?" Claire said into the receiver, her voice trembling. "It's Claire at Lakeview. We have a Code Zero. A newly appointed department manager just marched Ethan out of the building with a cardboard box."
On the other end of the line, Malcolm Reed—Chief Executive Officer of Crestline Dynamics—didn't yell. He dropped his cup of coffee, the sound of breaking ceramic ringing through the speaker.
"Who is the manager?" Malcolm asked, his voice dripping with lethal authority.
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"Derek Lawson."
"Tell Lawson to stay in his chair," Malcolm commanded. "I am shutting down the entire downtown board meeting. My security detail and I will be at Lakeview in twelve minutes."
