---- Chapter 5 Chapter 5 Aimee Ramirez POV: | walked into the boardroom at precisely 9 a.m. The air was thick with tension. Kyle sat at the head of the table, a picture of solemn authority. Karma was beside him, looking pale and demure, her hand resting protectively on her stomach. His allies, Chen and Williams, sat to his right, their faces grim. Only Marcus Thorne met my gaze, a silent question in his eyes. | ignored the empty chair next to Marcus, the one designated for me. Instead, | walked to the front of the room and stood before them all, my back to the panoramic window overlooking the city. "Aimee, thank you for coming," Kyle began, his voice dripping with condescending sympathy. "We're all very concerned about you." "Save it, Kyle," | said, my voice cutting through the pretense like a surgeon's scalpel. "| know why you've called this meeting. You want to have me declared unstable. You want to strip me of my position and my voting rights. You want to take my company." A murmur went through the room. Chen and Williams shifted uncomfortably. ---- "This isn't about taking anything," Kyle said smoothly. "It's about protecting the company from your erratic behavior." "My erratic behavior?" | let out a short, sharp laugh. "Is that what you call refusing to sign over my personal fortune to finance your mistress's legal troubles?" Karma gasped, her eyes filling with perfectly timed tears. "That's not true! | would never..." "Please, don't," | said, holding up a hand. "Your performance is wasted here. This isn't a soap opera. It's a boardroom." | turned my attention back to Kyle. "You want to talk about behavior that threatens this company? Let's talk about yours." | nodded to Marcus. He slid a thick, leather-bound document to the center of the table. "The original corporate charter," | announced. "The one we all signed five years ago. I'd like to direct the board's attention to Clause 1138, Section B." Kyle frowned, a flicker of confusion in his eyes. "Clause what?" "It concerns actions of 'moral turpitude' by a co-founder," | explained, my voice calm and clear. "It defines such actions as any personal conduct that could bring the company into public disrepute. For example, impregnating a subordinate, and then attempting to coerce your business partner into a sham divorce and the fraudulent transfer of joint assets to cover it up. The color drained from Kyle's face. He looked at the charter as ---- if it were a venomous snake. "This clause," | continued, my voice ringing with authority, "stipulates that such actions trigger an immediate, mandatory internal audit and a full lockdown of the offending partner's assets and voting shares, pending a full board review." "This is insane," Williams stammered. "I've never heard of this clause." "That's because you didn't write the code," | said, looking directly at Kyle. "I did. It's a poison pill. A failsafe | built into the very DNA of this company to protect it from a man exactly like you." | placed a single document on the table. It was the trust agreement he had tried to force me to sign. "This is the proof of your violation. Your attempt to divert funds." Then | placed the divorce papers next to it. "And this is the motive." | looked at the board members, one by one. "Kyle called this meeting to question my competency. But the real question before the board today is about his. His judgment. His ethics. His fitness to lead this company." Kyle stood up, his chair scraping violently against the floor. "This is a lie! A fabrication! She's the one who's unstable!" "Am |?" | asked softly. | pulled a small, discreet audio recorder from my pocket and placed it on the table. "This is a recording of my conversation with you yesterday, Kyle. The one where you threatened to ruin my mother's life if | didn't comply." ---- The threat was a lie, but he didn't know that. | saw the flash of memory in his eyes-not of a threat he had made, but of the one he would have made if pushed. His own guilty conscience convicted him. "The vote before you is simple," | said to the board. "You can side with a man who has proven himself to be a reckless, unethical liability. Or you can side with me, the architect of this company's success and the guardian of its integrity." | looked at Kyle, at his handsome face, now pale with dawning horror. He had walked in here a king, ready to order my execution. He was just now realizing he was the one standing on the gallows. "You have one hour to decide," | said. Then | turned and walked out of the room, leaving the ticking time bomb of his own making to detonate in the center of his world.