Chapter 4 - The Boardroom Trap
One week later, Adrian called an emergency meeting of the Blackwood Holdings board.
Vanessa Crowe arrived with her father.
At seventy-eight, Charles Crowe still carried himself like the most powerful attorney in any room.
He sat opposite Adrian.
“This has gone far enough.”
Adrian said nothing.
Charles continued.
“You are allowing three strangers to destabilize a global company.”
Adrian placed a folder on the table.
“They aren’t strangers.”
Vanessa crossed her arms.
“Personal relationships have nothing to do with corporate governance.”
“You’re right.”
Adrian activated the screen behind him.
“That’s why we’re discussing corporate crimes.”
Bank transfers appeared.
Payments to officials.
Intercepted letters.
Forged documents.
Private investigators.
Then Vanessa’s emails appeared.
Six months earlier, she had ordered employees to remove archived references connecting Sofia Bellini with Adrian Blackwood.
Another email restricted Claire Bennett’s tenant file.
A third accelerated their building’s eviction.
The boardroom fell silent.
Vanessa’s face lost its color.
“These documents are being taken out of context.”
“The context,” Adrian said, “is an eleven-year-old boy selling donuts because your office was about to make his family homeless.”
He turned toward Charles.
“The context is a pregnant twenty-three-year-old woman being threatened because my father thought she wasn’t wealthy enough for his son.”
Charles slammed his hand down.
“Your father protected you!”
“No.”
“He protected your future.”
Adrian stared at him.
“My future was Claire.”
Charles scoffed.
“You were willing to throw away everything for a bakery girl.”
Adrian leaned across the table.
“She had a name.”
Charles said nothing.
“Her name is Sofia Bellini.”
The boardroom doors opened.
Federal investigators entered.
Vanessa stood.
“What is this?”
Adrian closed his folder.
“The part my father always avoided.”
Charles looked toward the investigators.
“This can be handled privately.”
“Privately is how you buried it for thirty-two years.”
Vanessa stared at Adrian.
“You would destroy your company for these people?”
“No.”
He looked around the room.
“I’m going to discover how much of this company was built by destroying people my family considered disposable.”
An investigator approached.
“We recovered something from Mr. Crowe’s private safe.”
He placed a sealed envelope on the table.
One name was written across it.
SOFIA BELLINI.
Below it was a date.
Adrian recognized it.
Claire’s birthday.
Charles stood abruptly.
“Don’t open that.”
Everyone froze.
Adrian looked at him.
For the first time, Charles Crowe appeared afraid.
Adrian broke the seal.
Inside was a photograph.
A newborn wrapped in a white hospital blanket.
Claire.
Behind it was a document bearing Adrian’s father’s signature.
He read.
His hands began shaking.
His father had arranged to take Claire from Sofia after her birth.
Not figuratively.
Legally.
Permanently.
Adrian looked at Charles.
“You were going to steal my daughter.”
“Your father believed—”
“I didn’t ask what he believed.”
Adrian turned the page.
Someone had blocked the plan.
At the bottom was another signature.
May you like
Adrian stared at it.
His mother’s.
