Chapter 13 - Breaking the Boardroom Doors
The freight elevator doors slid open with a sharp, pneumatic hiss, revealing the plush, soundproofed hallway of the executive floor. Thick crimson carpet muffled their footsteps as Maya, Arthur, and Marcus strode purposefully toward the towering double doors of the main boardroom. Through the frosted glass panels, the muffled sound of applause and triumphant shouting echoed down the corridor.
"He's calling for the final tally," Maya noted, her stride never faltering.
Marcus stepped ahead of them, placing his massive hands against the heavy oak handles of the boardroom doors. He didn't knock. With a sudden, synchronized shove, Marcus threw the double doors wide open, crashing them against the interior walls with a resounding bang that instantly silenced the room.
All twelve directors froze mid-applause. At the head of the mahogany table, Thomas Vance stood triumphantly with a glass of champagne in his hand, his smug smile freezing instantly upon his face as he locked eyes with his older brother and his niece.
"What is the meaning of this interruption?" Thomas sputtered, slamming his champagne flute down onto the table so hard the crystal stem shattered, spraying champagne across the polished wood. "Security! How did unauthorized personnel get onto the executive floor?"
"We are not unauthorized, Thomas," Arthur’s voice rang out, clear, resonant, and entirely devoid of weakness. He walked into the boardroom with measured, unhurried steps, looking every bit the reigning patriarch of the empire.
Maya followed closely behind her father, her head held high, while Marcus stood guard at the open doors like an immovable monolith of absolute authority.
Thomas’s face drained of color, his hands gripping the edge of the mahogany table for support. "Arthur... you're supposed to be—you're medically unfit to attend board functions! The emergency vote was already called and seconded!"
"The vote is null and void," Maya spoke up, her voice cutting through the stunned silence of the boardroom like a razor. She reached into her pocket, pulled out the platinum-plated cryptographic keycard, and tossed it across the table. It slid smoothly over the polished wood, stopping dead against Thomas’s water glass.
Thomas stared down at the platinum card as if it were a venomous snake. "The golden share..." he whispered, his voice trembling with sudden, unadulterated panic.
"By virtue of Article 9, paragraph four of the Vance corporate charter," Maya declared, stepping forward to stand beside her father at the head of the table, "the legal heir exercises absolute executive veto over any board resolution taken in the Chairman's absence."
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Several directors in the room visibly shifted in their seats, realizing the catastrophic legal trap Thomas had just walked them all into.
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