Chapter 4 - The Morning After
By eight the next morning, a video of Daniel's speech had been viewed nearly a million times.
I hadn't posted it.
Neither had Daniel.
One of our guests had filmed the letter and uploaded it with the caption, This is what a real husband sounds like.
Strangers praised him.
Others called me ungrateful.
The internet had no idea how much worse things could become.
At eight seventeen, my company email stopped working.
At eight twenty-three, human resources delivered a termination notice to my personal address.
Gross insubordination and reputational harm.
I stared at the words in disbelief.
My father had fired his company's general counsel by email the morning after her wedding.
Then a courier arrived with a cardboard box of belongings from my office.
My framed law degree was packed beneath a stack of empty folders.
My grandmother's photograph wasn't there.
Daniel spread the contents across the kitchen table.
"He's trying to scare you."
"He's trying to make sure nobody at Mercer listens when I speak."
I called the estate attorney, Samuel Brooks.
"It's time," I told him.
He was quiet for several seconds.
"Are you certain?"
"My father breached my office, cut off my access, and sent a threat after my wedding."
"Then we proceed carefully."
Samuel explained that my grandmother's voting shares had been transferred through her estate instruments, but proper corporate notices still mattered.
My ownership didn't magically permit me to issue orders to employees.
We needed the share register, the bylaws, and an emergency board meeting.
"And Claire," he added, "do not use confidential company information improperly, even if they force you out."
That advice stung because it was exactly what Grandmother would have said.
By noon, I had retained separate corporate counsel, Nina Hart, to keep the roles clean.
Nina's first discovery was unsettling.
Dad had scheduled a special board meeting for the next morning.
The agenda called for the appointment of Vanessa as executive vice president.
A second item proposed granting my father exclusive authority to negotiate the sale of a controlling interest to an outside investor.
The investor was unnamed.
"He thinks you can't interfere," Nina said.
"He thinks I'm just an employee," I replied.
Then Samuel emailed an image of Grandmother's share certificate and signed transfer papers.
He added one sentence.
There is something else you need to see before the meeting.
May you like
The attachment was labeled AMENDMENT FOURTEEN.
