Chapter 3 - The Boardroom and the Backlash
The media firestorm that followed Victoria Lane’s arrest was unlike anything Silicon Valley had seen in a decade. Headlines screamed across the globe: Tech Billionaire’s Fiancée Arrested for Child Abuse, The Dark Secret of the Hawthorne Mansion, and Hero Housekeeper Saves Tragic Triplets.
The stock prices of Hawthorne Enterprises plummeted by fifteen percent in forty-eight hours. The board of directors was in a panic.
On Monday morning, Richard walked into the high-tech boardroom at the top of the Hawthorne Tower. He hadn't slept in three days. He wore a simple black suit, his face haggard, but his jaw was set with a grim determination.
The room was filled with twelve of the most powerful investors in the country, all shouting over each other. At the head of the table sat Arthur Vance, Richard’s oldest mentor and a major shareholder, who looked furious.
“Richard! This is a disaster!” Arthur slammed his hand on the glass table. “The PR department is drowning! Victoria’s father is threatening a counter-suit, claiming our security footage was tampered with! The public thinks you’re an unfit father who let a sociopath abuse his children! We need you to step down as CEO temporarily to stabilize the stock!”
Richard walked to the front of the room, ignoring the shouting. He didn't sit down. He stood before them, leaning his hands on the table, surveying the people who had made billions off his genius.
“I’m not stepping down,” Richard said, his voice flat and commanding.
“Richard, be reasonable!” another board member cried. “The media is digging into everything! They’re tracking down the housekeeper! If she sells her story to the tabloids, we’re finished! We need to pay her off, sign an NDA, and get her out of the country!”
A cold smile touched Richard’s lips, but his eyes remained deadly. “You want to pay off Emily Carter? The woman who ran through the streets to catch my bleeding children? The woman who is currently the only reason my sons aren't screaming themselves to sleep?”
He pressed a button on the remote, and the massive projection screen behind him lit up. Instead of financial charts or stock projections, it displayed a legal document.
“This morning, I signed over thirty percent of my personal voting shares into a blind trust managed exclusively by Emily Carter,” Richard announced.
The boardroom erupted into absolute chaos. Men and women jumped to their feet, shouting in disbelief.
“Are you insane?!” Arthur Vance roared. “You gave thirty percent of the company to a maid?!”
“She is not a maid,” Richard thundered, his voice booming through the room, instantly silencing them. “She is the executive guardian of the Hawthorne heirs. If any of you, or any member of our PR team, attempts to approach her, bribe her, or defame her, I will use my remaining shares to dissolve this entire board. I built this company from a garage, and I can burn it down just as quickly.”
He leaned in closer to Arthur. “Victoria’s family can sue all they want. The police have the forensic evidence. The blood on the basement stairs belongs to Victoria Lane—it matches the DNA from the shattered vase. She is going to prison for a very long time. And as for the public image of this company... we will survive it by being honest. I made a mistake. I trusted the wrong person. But I will spend the rest of my life making it right.”
Without waiting for a response, Richard turned on his heel and walked out of the boardroom, leaving the most powerful people in tech paralyzed with shock.
As he rode the elevator down to the garage, his phone buzzed. It was a text from Emily.
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“The boys ate their breakfast. Ethan asked if you were coming home for dinner. He wants to show you a drawing he made.”
For the first time in years, a genuine smile spread across Richard’s face. The stock market could crash to zero, but for the first time in his life, he felt like he was finally learning how to be a father.
