Chapter 5 - The Ghost Speaks
The silence in the boardroom was absolute. You could have heard a pin drop against the plush wool carpet.
Board members gasped and jumped to their feet. Arthur Pendelton took off his glasses, his hands shaking in utter disbelief. "Amelia?! Merciful heavens... you’re alive?!"
Richard stood frozen like a stone statue. His eyes bulged, his lips parted in a silent, horrified scream, and his breath came in ragged, shallow gasps. He looked at me as though a phantom had ripped through the fabric of reality itself. Beside him, Victoria dropped her fountain pen; it rolled off the edge of the mahogany table and cracked against the marble floor.
"You're... you're dead," Richard choked out, his voice cracking into a pathetic, high-pitched squeak. "I saw you fall! You fell thousands of feet into the ocean! It’s impossible!"
"Did you really think I’d take a helicopter tour with a man who spent three months searching for offshore contract killers without bringing a parachute?" I asked, my voice calm, smooth, and echoing with absolute power.
A murmur of shock erupted across the table.
"What are you talking about?!" Richard shouted, his panic turning into wild, unhinged fury. "She’s hallucinating! She’s suffered severe trauma from the crash! Security! Call security and have this woman removed from the premises immediately!"
"Your security team has already been disarmed and detained in the lobby, Mr. Hayes," Special Agent Davis of the FBI stated calmly, stepping forward and displaying his credentials. "Please remain where you are."
I walked slowly to the head of the table, placing both hands on the back of Arthur’s chair. I looked directly at Victoria, who was now trembling so violently she had to hold onto the table for balance.
"Victoria," I said gently. "Did you really think I wouldn't notice the eighty-five million dollars you and Richard siphoned out of our European subsidiaries through dummy shell companies in the Cayman Islands? Did you honestly think I didn't see the encrypted messages you sent back and forth on our company intranet?"
"Amelia, please... I had nothing to do with this!" Victoria cried out, tears of genuine panic streaming down her makeup. "Richard told me you were abusive, that you were running the company into bankruptcy! He manipulated me!"
"Shut up, you stupid bitch!" Richard roared, lunging toward Victoria before Marcus instantly closed the distance, grabbing Richard by the lapels of his jacket and slamming him flat against the boardroom table.
"Don't move," Marcus whispered in his ear, pressing him down with effortless precision.
"Arthur," I said, turning to my father’s lifelong ally. "I believe there was a motion on the floor to appoint a new Chief Executive Officer. As the living, breathing majority shareholder holding sixty-two percent of all voting stock, I hereby dismiss Richard Hayes from all executive positions, terminate Victoria Vance for gross corporate misconduct, and revoke all their security privileges effective immediately."
Every single board member raised their hands in unanimous agreement.
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"And as for you, Richard," I said, leaning down until my face was inches from his terrified, sweating forehead. "The helicopter wasn't just monitored by air traffic control. Every word spoken inside that cockpit was recorded by the Federal Aviation Administration. And every motion you made was captured on my personal 4K tactical camera."
Richard’s eyes darted wildly, realization crashing over him like a tidal wave.
