Chapter 10 - THE BOARDROOM WITHOUT MERCYThe next morning, I walked into Wentworth Holdings wearing the same suit from the night before.
It had been cleaned badly.
A faint bloodstain remained near the cuff.
I left it there.
Let them see.
The emergency board meeting had been called by my mother.
She expected sympathy.
She expected control.
She expected me to hide.
Instead, I entered the glass conference room with Samuel Price on one side and Detective Harris on the other.
Conversation died instantly.
Margaret sat at the far end of the table in a cream suit, pearls at her throat, eyes red from practiced crying.
Carla was not there.
She was still in custody.
My mother stood when she saw me.
“Austin,” she said softly. “Thank God. We need to address this before it damages the company further.”
I placed my phone on the table.
“No. We need to address what you did to my wife.”
A few board members shifted uncomfortably.
Margaret pressed a hand to her chest.
“This is exactly what I feared. He is overwhelmed. Irene has turned him against his own family.”
Samuel opened his briefcase.
“No, Margaret. Evidence did that.”
He passed copies of documents down the table.
My father’s letter.
Financial transfers.
Carla’s notes.
Draft guardianship papers.
Forgery samples.
The room changed page by page.
Sympathy became suspicion.
Suspicion became horror.
Margaret’s face hardened.
“You have no right to distribute private family materials.”
Detective Harris spoke for the first time.
“They are part of an active criminal investigation.”
A board member named Elaine leaned forward.
“Margaret, did you use foundation accounts for personal transfers?”
Margaret did not look at her.
She looked at me.
“You ungrateful boy.”
There she was.
Not the crying mother.
Not the elegant widow.
The woman behind the pearls.
“I protected this family after your father died,” she said. “I kept parasites away from you.”
“My wife is not a parasite.”
“She is carrying one.”
The room went silent.
Even Margaret seemed to realize she had said it aloud.
I stood very still.
Samuel closed his eyes.
Detective Harris wrote something down.
Elaine whispered, “My God.”
Margaret lifted her chin.
“Yes. My God. All of you sit here judging me while that girl traps my son with a baby and a pretty face.”
I walked to the end of the table.
“You don’t get to say another word about my child.”
She laughed once.
Cold.
“You think that child makes her permanent?”
“No,” I said. “The law does.”
Samuel placed the final document in front of her.
An emergency motion freezing Margaret’s access to all family-controlled accounts pending investigation.
Her face went white.
“You can’t do this.”
“I already did.”
She looked around the table.
May you like
No one defended her.
For the first time in her life, Margaret Wentworth stood in a room full of powerful people and found no one willing to be afraid for her.
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