Chapter 6: The Boardroom on the Twelfth Floor
The boardroom door was closed but not locked.
Charlotte opened it without knocking.
Vivienne was at the head of the table — her table, the one she had occupied for eight months as though she had always belonged there.
Three men sat along the left side.
Charlotte recognized two of them from her mother's old photographs: Aldridge, silver-haired and still, and a younger man named Pruitt who had joined the board six weeks after Eleanor died.
The third man she didn't recognize — mid-forties, dark suit, a legal pad open in front of him.
Vivienne's attorney.
He had arrived faster than expected.
"Charlotte Vale," Vivienne said.
She didn't stand.
"I see you've found your way upstairs."
"I own the stairs," Charlotte said.
She pulled out the chair at the opposite end of the table and sat down.
Daniel took the chair to her right and set the briefcase on the table.
Vivienne's attorney leaned forward.
"Ms.
Vale, I'm Richard Cass, representing Ms.
Holt and the current board.
Before this goes any further, I want to be clear that any documents you've presented today are being reviewed for authenticity —"
"They've already been confirmed," Charlotte said.
"By Edmund Hargrove.
On speaker.
In the lobby.
In front of approximately thirty witnesses." She looked at Cass.
"Would you like his direct number, or do you already have it?"
Cass glanced at Vivienne.
Vivienne's expression didn't change.
"Edmund is an old man who was very close to Eleanor.
Grief affects judgment."
"He filed the ownership transfer fourteen months ago," Charlotte said.
"Before my mother died.
Before her judgment or his could be questioned by anyone." She opened the briefcase and slid the court filing across the table toward Cass.
"Page one.
Filing date.
Court stamp.
Case number.
You can verify it in under ten minutes."
Cass picked it up.
The room was quiet while he read.
Pruitt shifted in his chair.
"Even if the ownership transfer is valid," he said, "the operational authority of the current board —"
"Ends the moment the legal owner is present and identified," Charlotte said.
"Which happened approximately forty minutes ago in the lobby." She looked at him steadily.
"You were appointed to this board six weeks after my mother's death.
At a meeting called by Vivienne.
That appointment is now under review."
Pruitt opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Charlotte turned to Aldridge.
He had not spoken since she walked in.
He was watching her with an expression she couldn't read yet.
"Mr.
Aldridge," she said.
"You were on my mother's original board for fifteen years.
You knew her.
You knew this company." She paused.
"When Vivienne called the emergency meeting six weeks after my mother died — did you vote to approve her appointments?"
A long silence.
"I did," Aldridge said.
"Why?"
He looked at his hands on the table.
"Because Vivienne told us the ownership documents were being contested.
That the estate was in dispute.
That the company needed stable leadership while the legal process played out." He looked up.
"She told us you had walked away.
That you had signed a waiver."
Charlotte felt something cold move through her chest.
"I never signed anything," she said.
"I know that now," Aldridge said.
Vivienne's voice came from the head of the table, sharp and sudden.
"Edmund prepared those documents without board authorization.
Whatever Charlotte believes she inherited —"
"I have the waiver," Charlotte said.
The room went still.
She reached into the briefcase and produced a single page.
She slid it toward the center of the table.
"This is the document Vivienne presented to the board as my signature," Charlotte said.
"The signature is not mine.
I have a handwriting analysis completed by an independent forensic examiner — commissioned eight weeks ago — confirming it." She slid a second page alongside the first.
"I also have the original document sent to me by courier, which I never received, because it was intercepted.
The courier's log shows delivery to this building.
To this floor.
Signed for by Vivienne's personal assistant."
Cass had stopped writing.
Vivienne stood up.
"This is a fabrication," she said.
Her voice was still controlled, but something underneath it had begun to crack.
"You disappeared after your mother died.
You abandoned this company.
You left it to fall apart and now you walk back in here with a briefcase full of —"
"Sit down, Vivienne," Aldridge said.
Everyone at the table looked at him.
It was the first time he had spoken to her directly.
His voice was quiet.
Final.
Vivienne sat down.
Aldridge looked at Charlotte.
"What do you need from us?"
Before Charlotte could answer, the boardroom door opened behind her.
Forsythe stepped in.
He was carrying his document case in both hands.
Vivienne saw him.
For the first time since Charlotte had entered the building, Vivienne Holt looked genuinely afraid.
"Edmund told me to come up," Forsythe said to Charlotte.
"He did," Charlotte said.
"Sit down, Dr.
May you like
Forsythe." She looked at Vivienne.
"He has something to add."
