Chapter 7 - The Empire Reclaimed
By noon, the business world of our city had turned upside down. The board of directors of Mendoza Freight convened in an emergency session on the thirty-second floor of our corporate headquarters.
Ricardo, having posted bail with the help of his mother’s meager savings, arrived looking like a shattered ghost. His tailored suit was wrinkled, his stubble was unkempt, and the arrogant smirk that had defined his career was entirely gone. Beside him stood his personal attorney, sweating through his collar.
"This is an administrative misunderstanding!" Ricardo declared to the gathered board members, slamming his hands on the table. "My wife is acting out of emotional hysteria over a domestic dispute! She has no right to suspend corporate operations or freeze our operating capital!"
The double doors swung open. I walked in, flanked by Mateo Cruz and our chief financial auditor. Every director in the room stood up out of respect—men who had known my father for forty years and who had watched Ricardo play the fool with growing disgust.
"Take your seat, Ricardo," I said, walking directly to the head of the boardroom table and sitting in the executive chair.
"You don't run this company, Mariana!" Ricardo snarled, pointing a shaking finger at me. "I am the Chief Executive Officer!"
"You were the CEO," Mateo Cruz corrected him, sliding a thick audit report down the length of the table. "Until eight this morning, when forensic accountants verified that over the past twenty-four months, you siphoned four million, two hundred thousand dollars of company reserves into dummy corporations registered under Daniela Torres and your mother, Elvira Mendoza."
The room erupted into gasps. Board members leaned over the evidence, their faces turning to disgusted scowls.
"Under Article 14 of our corporate charter," I announced, looking Ricardo dead in the eye, "any executive officer engaged in gross fiduciary fraud or criminal embezzlement is subject to immediate summary dismissal and full forfeiture of unvested equity. As holder of fifty-one percent of the voting shares, I have voted to terminate your employment immediately. Security is currently clearing your desk into cardboard boxes."
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Ricardo looked around the room, pleading with the men who had shared expensive cigars and golf weekends with him. "Julian! Roberto! You know me! I built these trade lanes!"
"You didn't build anything, Ricardo," Julian said coldly, turning his back on him. "Mariana's father gave you your start, and Mariana cleaned up your operational blunders every single quarter while you took the credit. You brought this ruin upon yourself."
