The Boardroom Crown
Chapter 06 - The Boardroom Crown
Vanessa declined the call.
Ethan stared at her phone.
“You know where she is.”
Vanessa slipped it into her purse. “Leave her alone.”
“You found your daughter?”
“She found me.”
Evelyn’s face tightened. “Vanessa, we agreed—”
“No, Mother. You agreed. You have been agreeing for everyone since I was nineteen.”
It was the first time I heard Vanessa speak to Evelyn without restraint.
For one second, they were not two powerful women standing in a mansion. They were a frightened daughter and the mother who had taught her fear to dress like obedience.
Then Vanessa remembered why she had come.
“The board voted,” she said.
Ethan’s jaw tightened.
“I’ve been removed?”
“Suspended pending an audit. I am acting chief executive.”
“You submitted false evidence.”
“I submitted facts you chose to ignore.”
“You leaked Claire’s medical information.”
Vanessa’s eyes shifted toward me.
“I did not leak the hospital records.”
“But you know who did.”
She did not answer.
Vanessa walked to the nursery window and looked down at the cars gathering near the front entrance.
“The press is here,” she said. “They know the board voted.”
“How?”
“I called them.”
Ethan laughed without humor. “Of course you did.”
“I spent twenty years watching men announce decisions I made. Today I will announce my own.”
She moved toward the door.
Before leaving, she paused beside me.
“You have until tomorrow morning to move out.”
“This house belongs to the family trust,” Ethan said.
“I control the trust’s voting rights.”
“You’re evicting your pregnant sister-in-law?”
“I am removing a liability from company property.”
I followed her into the hallway.
“Vanessa.”
She turned.
“Lily called you.”
Her face became still.
“What did you promise her?”
“That is none of your business.”
“Did you promise her this house? A job? The name your mother took from her?”
Vanessa stepped close enough for me to smell her perfume.
“I promised her she would never have to beg for a place in this family.”
“Then don’t use her to win one.”
For the first time, my words appeared to reach her.
Her eyes flickered with pain.
Then it was gone.
An hour later, Vanessa stood before the mansion gates and announced her new position to the press. Behind her, movers carried our suitcases to Ethan’s car.
The scene appeared on every local news station.
By evening, Vanessa Bennett had the title she believed would repair twenty-one years of loss.
Ethan and I had two suitcases, a hospital bag, and nowhere permanent to live.
As we drove away, my phone rang.
The caller identified herself as Lily Hart.
“I need to see you,” she said.
May you like
“Why?”
“Because Vanessa told me you were trying to steal my inheritance.”
