Chapter 12 - PHASE TWO
Phase One was the board takeover.
Phase Two was what came afterward.
The deleted documents were incomplete, but enough survived.
Once Margaret obtained temporary voting authority, Thomas would call a second board meeting.
I would be placed on administrative leave.
The fake medical report would support the decision.
Robert would publicly defend the move as necessary for family stability.
Then came the part that stunned even Daniel.
They planned to sue Irene.
For fraud.
Financial manipulation.
And coercive influence over me.
The evidence would be manufactured from fragments of real documents.
My mother intended to portray Irene’s investigation into missing trust money as proof that Irene herself had interfered with the trusts.
“She was going to blame Irene for the money she stole.”
Daniel nodded.
“That appears to be the plan.”
I stared through the conference room windows.
“And the safe?”
“The original succession certificate would make their story stronger.”
That was why Margaret needed it before nine.
Not merely to take control.
To build a paper trail suggesting I had willingly given it away.
The entire plan depended on my absence.
Then Daniel found something at the bottom of the recovered folder.
A draft press release.
I read the headline.
WENTWORTH HOLDINGS ANNOUNCES TEMPORARY LEADERSHIP TRANSITION.
My name appeared throughout.
So did Irene’s.
The release described me as taking an extended medical leave.
It described Irene as the subject of an internal financial inquiry.
It had been scheduled for distribution at 10:30 a.m. on the morning after my canceled flight.
Had I reached London, I might have woken up to discover I no longer controlled my company and my wife was being publicly accused of financial crimes.
I closed the laptop.
“Who wrote this?”
“Public relations metadata points to Evelyn’s office.”
Daniel paused.
“There’s more.”
“Of course there is.”
“One paragraph was inserted later.”
He showed it to me.
The language suggested that Margaret would temporarily oversee certain family interests “for the protection of future generations.”
Future generations.
My unborn child.
Even in their press release, they had found a way to claim ownership over a future they were trying to control.
I returned home before dinner.
Irene was sitting outside beneath the covered terrace.
The Arizona sky was turning orange over the mountains.
I sat beside her.
“They had a press release ready.”
She did not look surprised.
“They always had a story ready.”
“What do you mean?”
“That was Margaret’s real weapon.”
I looked at her.
“She never just did something.”
“She prepared the explanation first.”
I remembered the bedroom.
She was stealing from you.
Carla and I were stopping her.
Even caught beside the safe, my mother had instantly produced a narrative.
Irene took my hand.
“You beat her because you recorded before you reacted.”
I had almost forgotten that decision.
That one minute outside the bedroom.
The minute when every instinct told me to storm inside.
Instead, I recorded.
It was the difference between allegations and evidence.
Between a family argument and a documented crime scene.
But Margaret was preparing her next story.
The following morning, her attorney requested an emergency hearing.
My mother wanted the court to prohibit Irene and me from accessing several family accounts.
May you like
Her argument was extraordinary.
She claimed we were destroying evidence.
