Chapter 8 - The Boardroom Showdown
""I don't need sixty seconds,"" Lauren said, her voice ringing clear, steady, and sharp as a scalpel. She refused to look like a victim. She stood tall, meeting the Lead Director's gaze head-on. ""That photo was taken at twelve-fourteen in the morning after I worked fourteen consecutive hours fixing the botched valuation model that Carter Hayes submitted for the Vanguard deal.""
A ripple of murmurs ran through the board. Carter’s smirk vanished instantly.
""I knocked on room eight-fourteen by accident because my colleague Emma was staying in eight-forty-one, where I had left my work phone,"" Lauren continued, stepping forward and placing both hands firmly on the back of a vacant chair. ""I spoke to Mr. Calloway for exactly forty-eight seconds before realizing my mistake and walking away. If you check the full, unedited video footage from that hallway—which whoever leaked this conveniently cropped out—you will see that I left immediately and never entered his room.""
""A convenient excuse,"" Carter interrupted loudly, standing up and leaning over the table. ""You expect this board to believe you wandered the halls naked under a robe by pure coincidence? You were attempting to leverage your sexuality to usurp my position on the executive committee!""
""Enough, Carter,"" Ryan’s voice boomed across the room, vibrating the glass windows.
Ryan slowly rose to his feet. The sheer presence of the CEO silenced the entire room in an instant. He didn't look at Lauren; he focused his predatory gaze entirely on Carter.
""You talk a lot about ethics, Carter,"" Ryan said, his tone icy and lethal. He reached inside his breast pocket and pulled out a sleek silver flash drive, tossing it onto the center of the table with a sharp clatter. ""Let's talk about yours.""
Carter blinked, sweat suddenly beading across his forehead. ""What is that?""
""That is a forensic digital trace,"" Ryan stated calmly. ""Obtained this morning by our cybersecurity unit with the full cooperation of the Lakeside Grand’s ownership. It tracks the five-thousand-dollar cryptocurrency payment made from an offshore digital wallet to the night security manager at the hotel to illegally obtain that footage. And that wallet, Carter, is registered to your private estate trust in the Cayman Islands.""
The boardroom went dead silent. Carter’s face turned the color of ash.
""Furthermore,"" Ryan continued, stepping around the table, his eyes narrowing into cold slits, ""our forensic accountants discovered that over the last eighteen months, you have shorted Calloway Capital stock through secondary shell corporations, actively leaking proprietary acquisition data to our competitors to drive our valuation down. You didn't just leak that photo to hurt Lauren. You leaked it to create a leadership scandal that would crash the stock before the Vanguard closing, netting you a twelve-million-dollar payout.""
Gasps erupted around the table. The Lead Director stared at the flash drive in absolute horror.
""Security,"" Ryan commanded without raising his voice.
The two guards who had escorted Lauren immediately turned their attention to Carter, moving in on either side of him.
""You're done, Carter,"" Ryan said softly. ""The FBI's financial crimes division is waiting in the lobby to take you into custody. Get him out of my sight.""
Carter looked around wildly, finding no sympathy among the terrified board members. ""Calloway, you can't do this! You're sleeping with her! You're protecting your whore!""
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Before Carter could finish the sentence, Ryan moved. In two blindingly fast strides, he closed the distance, grabbed Carter by the throat of his bespoke shirt, and slammed him against the mahogany wall paneling, his eyes blazing with murderous fury.
""Say another word about her,"" Ryan whispered with terrifying savagery, ""and an insider trading charge will be the least of your problems.""
