Chapter 5 - The Reckoning on the Sixth Floor
The executive conference room on Lakeview's sixth floor was encased in floor-to-ceiling glass, offering a panoramic view of the storm-swept Chicago skyline.
Usually, this room was reserved for quarterly earnings calls and multi-million-dollar acquisitions. Today, it was a courtroom.
Forty-three employees from the operations floor stood gathered outside the glass walls, watching in rapt silence. Nina Patel stood near the front, her arms crossed, her eyes wide with anticipation.
Inside the room, Derek Lawson sat at the mahogany conference table. All the color had drained from his face. He had tried to leave ten minutes earlier, but two six-foot-four corporate security guards in dark suits had politely, yet immovably, informed him that his presence was required.
Beside him sat Claire Holloway.
At the head of the table stood Malcolm Reed, his sharp grey suit immaculate, his expression resembling a thunderstorm.
The heavy glass doors slid open.
Ethan Cole walked into the room.
He was still wearing his wet navy jacket with the repaired elbow. He wasn't carrying a cardboard box anymore. He carried a single, slim tablet.
Derek shrank back into his leather executive chair as Ethan walked to the head of the table, standing right beside Malcolm.
"Mr. Lawson," Ethan said softly.
Derek swallowed hard, his throat dry as bone. "Mr... Mr. Cole... I... I didn't know... if I had known who you were—"
"That’s the problem, Derek," Ethan interrupted gently, leaning his hands on the polished mahogany table. "If you only treat people with dignity when you know they own the company, you don't have integrity. You just have fear."
Ethan tapped his tablet, projecting a live file onto the massive display screen behind him.
It wasn't a termination letter. It was an internal audit report.
"Over the last six months," Ethan explained to the room, his voice echoing clearly through the speaker system, "Derek Lawson has authorized twelve staff layoffs across Regional Sales. Every single employee let go was a senior staff member earning above the median wage, or an employee who had taken parental or medical leave in the previous quarter."
Gasps erupted from the crowd of employees watching outside the glass.
"He did this to boost his department's quarterly efficiency score by four percent, earning himself a fifty-thousand-dollar performance bonus," Ethan continued, looking directly into Derek’s eyes. "He called it 'streamlining overhead.' I call it systemic destruction of human value."
Derek lowered his head, tears of humiliation and panic brimming at the edges of his eyes. "Please... Mr. Cole... I have a mortgage..."
"I know you do, Derek," Ethan said. "And unlike you, I won't strip away your livelihood without a fair process."
Ethan swiped his screen, updating the corporate directory.
"Derek Lawson is hereby removed from his position as Department Manager at Lakeview Data Systems," Ethan announced. "Effective immediately, his employment with Crestline Dynamics is suspended pending a full ethical review by our human resources board."
Ethan turned to face Claire Holloway.
"Claire, you are appointed Interim General Manager of Operations. Your first task is to reach out to every single employee Derek laid off in the last six months. Offer them their positions back, with full back pay and a twenty percent salary adjustment."
Cheering broke out from the forty-three employees outside the glass walls. Nina Patel slammed her hand against the glass, beaming with pure, ecstatic joy.
May you like
Ethan turned back to Derek, who was trembling in his chair.
"You can keep your leather shoes, Derek," Ethan said softly. "But you're cleared out of this building by noon."
