Chapter 7 - The Final Termination
Arthur Pierce turned on his niece with a look of absolute revulsion.
"Shut up, Lauren!" Arthur roared, slamming his palms against the glass.
"You haven't changed one bit since your father used to bail you out of boarding school expulsions! You've cost this company fifty million dollars in capital and our headquarters!"
"Uncle Arthur, please!" Lauren sobbed, falling back into her chair, her sunglasses falling off to reveal her red, swollen eyes.
"I brought in twenty new accounts this year! You can't throw me away over high school drama!"
"Those twenty accounts were acquired through aggressive, unauthorized fee splitting," Marcus Vance interrupted, sliding a fresh stack of bank statements across the table.
Every partner in the room froze.
"What did you say?" Arthur whispered, his voice cracking.
"Over the last six months, Miss Pierce has been illegally charging hidden transaction fees on elderly clients' retirement portfolios and depositing the commission surcharges into private offshore entities," Marcus revealed.
Lauren gasped, clutching her throat as if the air had been sucked out of the room.
"How did you get those?!" she shrieked.
"Bennett Capital conducted a standard forensic audit on your firm’s broker compliance before considering our fifty-million-dollar investment," I explained calmly, looking her in the eye.
"We uncovered your unauthorized accounts three days ago, Lauren. Ethan came to dinner last night to give you a chance to explain the discrepancies before reporting you to the SEC."
A collective groan of horror escaped the senior partners.
"You brought a federal crime to our doorstep?!" Arthur whispered to his niece, his hands shaking with sheer panic.
"Security!" Arthur shouted into the intercom system.
"Have Miss Pierce's workstation locked down immediately. Revoke her building access codes and escort her to human resources for immediate termination."
Two building security guards entered the boardroom within seconds.
Lauren thrashed and screamed as they pulled her up from the leather chair, her heels dragging across the polished wood floor.
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"You ruined me, Maya!" Lauren shrieked as she was dragged through the glass doors. "You think you're better than me, but you're nothing! You hear me?! Nothing!"
The doors clicked shut behind her, cutting off her voice forever and leaving behind a stunned, humiliated boardroom.
