Chapter 15 - The Boardroom Trap
Mason called me that night.
Alive.
“I can explain,” he said.
“You were paid by Lucas.”
“I was paid by Carter Development.”
“Same difference.”
“No. It isn’t.”
He told me to meet him at a parking garage beneath a closed office building in Century City.
Malcolm came with me.
Mason stepped from behind a concrete pillar with a bandage around his ribs.
“You look better than your office floor,” I said.
“Bell wanted it to look worse.”
“Were you working for Lucas?”
“At first.”
My hand tightened.
Mason raised both palms.
“Two years ago, Carter Development hired my firm to locate Olivia after the crash. I found evidence she survived. Lucas told me she had kidnapped company files and was mentally unstable.”
“When did you stop believing him?”
“When I found the clinic.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I tried.”
He pulled out his phone.
There were three draft emails addressed to me from seven months earlier.
All bounced back from my executive server.
“Your company filtered every message containing Olivia’s legal name,” he said.
Malcolm swore under his breath.
Mason continued, “I started feeding Lucas false leads while I traced the trust.”
“Why disappear?”
“Bell came for the files. I got out through the stairwell.”
“You sent me a photo of blood.”
“My blood.”
He lifted his shirt enough to show stitches.
“Any other surprises?”
“One.”
Of course.
Mason handed me an internal board agenda for the next morning.
Emergency Session: Removal of Ethan Carter as Chairman for Incapacity and Misconduct.
Lucas had accelerated everything.
“They vote at nine,” Mason said. “If they remove you, the company’s legal team will cooperate with the competency case. Then Vanessa gets Sophie until the hearing.”
I looked at Olivia.
“We go public before nine.”
She shook her head.
“Not yet.”
“What are we waiting for?”
“The original Harbor Point engineering report.”
Mason nodded. “It’s in the executive archive under the boardroom.”
I almost smiled.
“So Lucas wants a board meeting?”
Olivia understood.
“Give him one.”
At 8:57 the next morning, I walked into Carter Development headquarters with Olivia beside me.
The room went silent.
Lucas stood at the far end of the table.
My mother was already seated.
Vanessa sat beside company counsel.
Seeing Olivia alive destroyed the script they had prepared.
Lucas recovered first.
“This woman is legally dead and currently under investigation for custodial interference.”
Olivia smiled without warmth.
“Good morning to you too.”
I placed copies of the ledger on the table.
“We’re going to talk about Harbor Point.”
Three directors looked toward the door.
One actually stood.
Then every screen in the room turned black.
A security alarm began screaming.
My phone rang.
Grace.
I answered.
She was crying.
“Ethan, Sophie is gone.”
The boardroom disappeared around me.
“What?”
“The safe house door was open. There was blood on the floor.”
I looked across the table.
Vanessa’s chair was empty.
Mason handed me a second board document.
“It gets worse.”
The emergency vote was not only about removing me as chairman.
A hidden attachment authorized the sale of three company divisions immediately after my removal.
Buyer: Pacific Crest Holdings.
The shell company tied to Harbor Ridge.
“They’re selling company assets back to themselves,” Olivia said.
“Before the federal audit,” Mason replied.
That explained Lucas’s urgency.
But the purchase price was absurdly low.
Malcolm studied the numbers.
“This isn’t about saving the company. It’s stripping what still has value.”
I looked at the list of assets.
One division owned coastal land worth hundreds of millions.
Another held insurance reserves.
The third managed employee retirement funds.
Lucas was not trying to keep Carter Development alive.
He was preparing to loot it before it collapsed.
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