Chapter 7 - The Grand Entrance-7
The silence in the fiftieth-floor boardroom was so profound you could hear the hum of the air conditioning unit three rooms away.
Gavin’s hand remained suspended in mid-air, the wooden gavel hovering inches above the sounding block. His mouth opened slightly, color draining rapidly from his face as his eyes locked onto mine. Behind him, Celina dropped her champagne flute, the crystal shattering against the polished hardwood floor in a sharp explosion of sound.
"Naomi...?" Gavin choked out, his voice cracking like dry timber. "How... how are you...?"
"Surviving, Gavin," I said, my voice cutting through the heavy air like a razor blade as I strode down the center aisle between the rows of shocked board members. "Did you really think a barefoot walk in the rain was enough to permanently silence Ross Albright's daughter?"
Several board members began whispering frantically among themselves, recognizing Marcus Vance immediately. Marcus was a legal legend; when Marcus Vance walked into a corporate room, people didn't negotiate—they prepared for unconditional surrender.
"Security!" Celina shrieked, jumping to her feet and pointing a trembling, diamond-ringed finger at me. "Throw this impostor out! She’s mentally unstable, trespassing on private corporate property! Gavin owns sixty percent of this company—have her arrested!"
Not a single security guard stationed outside the doors moved an inch. They had already received word from building management downstairs that Durham Global and Vance & Associates legal teams had assumed emergency administrative control of the premises.
I stopped ten feet from the head of the table, pulling off my sunglasses and looking Gavin dead in the eye.
"Sixty percent of the shares, Gavin?" I tilted my head, offering a cold, mirthless smile. "Let's review the paperwork, shall we?"
Marcus stepped forward, placing a thick, stapled legal brief directly on top of the board papers Gavin had laid out.
"Pursuant to Section 14 of the Summit Enterprises corporate charter and State Civil Code 402," Marcus announced loudly, his voice echoing authoritatively across the room, "any asset transfer, share assignment, or legal waiver executed while the grantor is suffering from severe medical fever, incapacitation, or coercion is legally null, void ab initio, and classified as felony fraud."
Gavin slammed his palms onto the table, leaning forward with a desperate, furious snarl. "That's a lie! She signed those papers voluntarily! She gave them to me!"
"Did I?" I raised an eyebrow, reaching into my jacket pocket and pulling out a small, sleek digital audio player. I pressed play.
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Instantly, the audio recording of Gavin bragging in our kitchen echoed through the boardroom speakers: "I simply made a decision for you that you never would have had the courage to make yourself... I had to put up with his spoiled daughter for four years to get where I am today."
The color vanished entirely from Gavin’s face. He looked like a man staring into the open door of an incinerator.
