Chapter 3 - The Boardroom Execution
Forty-eight hours later, despite Dr. Vance’s initial protests, I discharged myself against medical advice—armed with a portable fetal monitor, a clearance letter, and an absolute refusal to miss the execution.
Sebastian’s private Maybach dropped us directly beneath the subterranean VIP parking garage of Rothford Global Tower in downtown Seattle. Two security guards flanked me as we took the private executive elevator straight up to the forty-eighth-floor boardroom.
The boardroom was a massive, cathedral-like space of black glass, brushed steel, and a twelve-seat polished mahogany table that overlooked the misty Puget Sound.
When the double doors swung open, every head at the table snapped toward us.
Lucas sat near the center, looking disheveled, his custom Armani suit wrinkled, his hair slightly unkempt. He had clearly spent the last two nights panicking. Beside him sat corporate counsel, looking equally terrified. At the head of the table sat Arthur Sterling, the senior independent board director, flanked by six other senior executives who controlled eighty-five percent of the voting shares.
And dominating the entire room, standing at the opposite end of the table with his hands resting casually on the polished wood, was Sebastian.
“Charlotte? What the hell are you doing here?” Lucas blurted out, half-rising from his chair before remembering where he was. He pointed a trembling finger at me. “She shouldn't be here! This is a confidential executive session of Rothford Global!”
“Sit down, Lucas,” Arthur Sterling commanded, his voice booming with age-earned authority.
Lucas dropped back into his chair, sweating profusely. He looked frantically around the table. “Look, gentlemen, whatever my brother has told you about the incident on the jet—it was a private family dispute! Sophia was dismissed from her marketing role this morning, we are filing paperwork, everything is being handled—"
“Handled?” Sebastian cut across him, his voice echoing sharply against the glass walls.
Sebastian walked slowly down the side of the table, picking up a thick, leather-bound dossier from the service counter and dropping it directly in front of Arthur Sterling.
“Let’s discuss how you handled company assets, Lucas,” Sebastian said smoothly.
Arthur Sterling opened the dossier, adjusted his reading glasses, and began flipping through the pages. As the older director read, his face darkened from neutral to a mottled, furious purple.
“Good god,” Sterling whispered, looking up at Lucas with unadulterated disgust. “Lucas... you embezzled nearly two million dollars in operational development funds over the last fourteen months?”
Lucas went completely white. “That’s... that’s a lie! Those were client entertainment expenses! Standard international development overhead!”
“Standard overhead?” Sebastian asked, raising an eyebrow. He tapped a remote on the wall console.
Instantly, the massive, wall-sized OLED screen behind the boardroom table flickered to life. High-definition financial wire transfers, intercepted text messages, and photographs lit up the room in crystal-clear resolution.
There were receipts for a luxury penthouse condo in Bellevue purchased under a shell corporation named Apex Holdings—wholly owned by Sophia Miller. There were invoices for private yacht charters in the Mediterranean, diamond jewelry purchases charged to the South American expansion budget, and detailed bank statements proving that Lucas had systematically routed corporate funds to finance his mistress’s lifestyle.
Worse still, right beneath those were internal compliance logs showing that Lucas had deliberately falsified safety audit reports for the company’s heavy machinery division in Eastern Europe to cover up budget shortfalls caused by his lavish spending.
“You didn’t just betray your wife, Lucas,” Sebastian said, his voice dropping into a chilling, deadpan register. “You compromised the financial integrity, legal compliance, and public reputation of a multi-billion-dollar enterprise. You treated Rothford Global like your personal piggy bank to impress a mid-level marketing employee who couldn't spell 'fiduciary' if her life depended on it.”
“You... you hacked my private accounts?” Lucas stammered, his voice cracking into a high-pitched panic as he looked around the table for allies. “You set me up! This is a family coup! You’ve always wanted total control of the board, Sebastian, and you’re using my personal life to—"
“Mr. Sterling,” Sebastian interrupted, ignoring his brother entirely, “as the majority shareholder holding fifty-one percent of the voting stock, I am formally moving for the immediate termination of Lucas Rothford as President of International Development, effective immediately, with zero severance, forfeiture of all unvested stock options, and an immediate referral to the federal prosecutor’s office for corporate wire fraud and embezzlement.”
Arthur Sterling didn’t hesitate for a single second. He raised his hand. সনদ!
“Seconded,” Sterling said loudly.
Every single director around the table raised their hand.
Unanimous.
Lucas sat frozen in his chair, his mouth opening and closing like a stranded fish. The color had completely drained from his face, leaving him looking sickly gray. His empire, his title, his salary, his stock options, and his social standing had vanished in less than sixty seconds.
“Security,” Sebastian said quietly.
The double doors opened, and two guards stepped in, walking directly toward Lucas.
“You can’t do this to me!” Lucas shrieked, finally losing all remaining composure as the guards hauled him out of his chair. He lunged toward the table, pointing a shaking finger at me. “Charlotte! Tell them! Tell them this is insane! We’re married! You’re my wife!”
I looked down the long mahogany table, my heart beating steadily against my ribs, the baby kicking softly in approval.
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“My name is Charlotte Rothford,” I said, my voice clear and steady, carrying effortlessly across the silent boardroom. “And as of twenty minutes ago, my attorney has filed emergency divorce papers in the King County Superior Court, seeking full custody, total asset freeze, and a restraining order against you.”
Lucas let out a choked, hysterical sob as the guards dragged him backward toward the heavy doors. His screams echoed down the hallway until the doors clicked shut, sealing him out of the room forever.
