The Boardroom War
Chapter 09 - The Boardroom War
The Mercer Foundation controlled nearly forty percent of the hotel group’s voting shares.
Richard controlled the foundation.
Or so he believed.
At the emergency meeting, he presented Emma as a threat.
“She appeared at our flagship property carrying a twenty-four-year-old letter,” he told the board. “Within hours, she was claiming family status.”
Julian stood.
“She claimed nothing.”
Richard ignored him.
“If this becomes an inheritance dispute, every company in the group becomes vulnerable.”
Emma sat at the far end of the table.
She had not wanted to attend.
Julian insisted.
“If they’re going to talk about you,” he said, “they can do it while looking at you.”
Richard turned toward her.
“Do you intend to pursue the Mercer estate?”
Emma answered clearly.
“No.”
A board member asked, “Do you intend to take Julian’s name?”
“No.”
“Do you want shares?”
“No.”
Richard smiled thinly.
“Today.”
Emma felt anger rise.
She stood.
“I spent last week cleaning spilled wine from ballroom floors. My mother is dying. The only reason I walked into your world was because she asked me to deliver a letter.”
The room quieted.
“I don’t want your foundation. I don’t want your hotels. I wanted my mother to stop carrying a secret that was killing her.”
Richard’s eyes flickered.
Emma saw fear.
Not of money.
Of something else.
Then an elderly board member named Samuel Price cleared his throat.
“I knew Julian’s father.”
Richard turned.
Samuel placed an old folder on the table.
“And twenty-four years ago, he asked me to destroy a trust document.”
Julian stared.
Richard went white.
Samuel opened the folder.
“I didn’t.”
The document named any biological child of either Mercer son born before the restructuring of the family holdings as an equal beneficiary.
Emma sat down slowly.
May you like
Richard had not tried to stop her from reaching Julian because he feared scandal.
He feared ownership.
