Chapter 19 - THE SHAREHOLDER MEETING
The special shareholder meeting began at ten the next morning in the largest auditorium at Prescott Systems headquarters.
Security screened every attendee.
Reporters filled the press section.
Employees packed the back rows.
Institutional investors joined remotely.
The stage held a long table with microphones, water glasses, and nameplates.
Aaron sat near one end.
I sat near the other.
There were six chairs between us.
That distance felt more honest than the seat beside him ever had.
Rebecca sat behind me.
Samuel opened the meeting.
The agenda had three items.
Recognition of the Whitmore Trust's reactivated Class F voting rights during the pending review.
Removal of Aaron Prescott from the board.
Authorization for the company to pursue recovery claims related to Vale Strategic, the offshore accounts, and altered contracts.
Before the first item began, Jasmine's attorney appeared by video.
She had obtained permission to argue her request for temporary restraint in connection with her civil claim.
Her lawyer spoke carefully.
He described me as a conflicted spouse using a legacy provision for personal retaliation.
He cited the photograph of me at dinner.
He cited the timing of the divorce.
He cited the fabricated email.
Rebecca stood.
"The email exhibit has been forensically identified as a file created three days ago under a company administrator profile associated with Nolan Price."
A murmur moved through the auditorium.
Jasmine's attorney objected to the characterization.
Rebecca continued.
"The account from which the email was allegedly sent was disabled on the date shown in the exhibit and had no outbound activity."
The murmur grew.
"We have provided the technical record to the court and to investigators."
The attorney shifted tactics.
He argued Clause 14 was stale.
Rebecca placed the 2021 Legacy Rights Confirmation on the screen.
Aaron's signature appeared at the bottom.
"Mr. Prescott reaffirmed Sections 11 through 16 in connection with a lender package."
The room became silent.
The outside corporate counsel confirmed the document's authenticity.
Then the independent reviewer gave a preliminary conclusion.
Clause 14 had been triggered by the undisclosed related-party contract and unauthorized use of my legacy credential.
The Class F voting ratio therefore reactivated under the agreement pending completion of review.
The chair recognized the rights.
My trust held fifty-one point four percent of current voting power for the limited review period.
Cameras turned toward me.
I did not feel powerful.
I felt responsible.
That difference mattered more than I could explain.
Samuel moved to the second item.
Removal of Aaron Prescott from the board.
Before discussion began, Aaron raised his hand.
"I want to speak."
The room quieted.
He stood at the microphone.
The company logo glowed on the wall behind him.
I had watched him speak beneath that logo hundreds of times.
Product launches.
Earnings calls.
Employee celebrations.
He had always looked larger than the stage.
Today, he looked human.
"I founded Prescott Systems twelve years ago with an idea, a small team, and money I did not have."
He looked toward me.
"The money came from Alyssa's family."
A few reporters began typing faster.
"For a long time, I was grateful."
"Then I became ashamed that I had needed it."
He paused.
"Instead of dealing with that shame like an adult, I rewrote the history of this company in my own mind."
The auditorium was completely silent.
"I told myself the early support was just capital."
"The patent license was just paperwork."
"The strategy Alyssa contributed was just what a spouse should do."
My throat tightened.
Aaron continued.
"And once I made everything she did smaller, it became easier to believe I owed her nothing."
Eleanor sat in the second row with her attorney.
She lowered her head.
"That belief affected my marriage."
"It also affected my judgment as CEO."
"I concealed a relationship with Jasmine Vale."
"I approved a contract while knowing she had an undisclosed beneficial interest."
"I pursued a restructuring that would have reduced Alyssa's trust from seventeen point eight percent to one point two percent voting power."
He looked at the shareholders.
"Alyssa did not know."
The sentence was clear.
"She did not approve the offshore accounts."
"She did not approve the Vale payments."
"She did not threaten Jasmine in the email attached to the civil complaint."
Jasmine's lawyer objected through the video feed.
Samuel muted the feed pending procedural review.
For the first time in days, I almost laughed.
Aaron kept speaking.
"I did not authorize the cloned credentials or the offshore diversion."
"But I created conditions where people believed they could bypass controls to give me outcomes I wanted."
He looked toward Daniel.
"The board was right to remove me as CEO."
Then he looked at me.
"And Alyssa is right to end our marriage."
My eyes burned.
I refused to look away.
"I oppose only one thing today."
The room tightened.
I did not know what was coming.
Aaron took a breath.
"I oppose anyone pretending she did this because of a seat on a plane."
A murmur moved through the audience.
"The seat mattered because I used it to show her, and everyone else, that I expected her to accept less."
He swallowed.
"She did."
"For too long."
He looked down at his notes.
Then he folded them.
"I resign from the board effective at the end of this meeting."
The auditorium erupted.
Reporters shouted.
Samuel stared at him.
Daniel closed his eyes.
I sat completely still.
Aaron continued over the noise.
"I will vote my common shares in favor of the company's recovery actions."
"I will cooperate with the independent review."
"And I will not challenge the Whitmore rights during the review period."
He stepped away from the microphone.
The removal vote became unnecessary once counsel confirmed the resignation.
The third item proceeded.
The company authorized civil recovery efforts by an overwhelming vote.
Vale Strategic's pending payments were terminated subject to legal review.
The company authorized claims seeking return of funds tied to the altered contract and unauthorized offshore transactions.
Then Samuel recognized Eleanor.
She had asked to make a statement.
She walked to the microphone slowly.
I had never seen her look uncertain in public.
Today she did.
"My name is Eleanor Prescott."
Everyone knew who she was.
She said it anyway.
"I used an authorization token assigned to Alyssa Prescott without her permission."
The room became silent.
"I did so because I believed I was helping my son resolve a company problem."
"That belief does not excuse what I did."
Aaron stared at his mother.
She continued.
"I also provided copies of Whitmore family agreements to Jasmine Vale without Alyssa's permission."
My chest tightened.
"I told myself I was protecting my family."
She looked toward me.
"The truth is that I had defined family so narrowly that I was willing to betray someone who had spent nine years trying to be part of mine."
I looked down.
That apology reached a place I had spent years trying to harden.
It still did not erase anything.
"I am cooperating with the investigation and will accept the consequences of my actions."
She left the microphone.
No applause.
That was right.
Confession was not performance.
The meeting ended shortly after noon.
Outside, reporters shouted questions as we crossed the lobby.
"Alyssa, are you taking over Prescott Systems?"
"Alyssa, will you force Aaron to sell his shares?"
"Alyssa, do you forgive him?"
"Alyssa, was Jasmine arrested?"
I stopped at the doors.
Rebecca looked at me as if asking whether I was sure.
I nodded.
Then I turned toward the cameras.
"I am not taking over day-to-day management of Prescott Systems."
The noise quieted.
"Daniel Cho and the leadership team are running the company."
"My voting rights exist temporarily to protect the review process, not to give me a throne."
A reporter shouted about Aaron.
"My divorce is private."
Another shouted about Jasmine.
"The investigation will follow evidence, not headlines."
Then someone called out the question everyone seemed obsessed with.
"Was this all because your husband gave Jasmine your seat?"
I looked at the cameras.
"No."
I paused.
"But the seat told me something I should have understood earlier."
The lobby went quiet.
"He believed I would accept whatever he asked me to accept because I loved him."
I opened the door.
"He was right until that day."
I walked outside.
The cameras followed.
Rebecca's phone buzzed as we reached the car.
She read the message.
Her expression changed.
"What now?"
"Investigators executed search warrants on properties connected to Jasmine and Nolan this morning."
"Did they recover anything?"
"They recovered her assigned company laptop from a storage unit registered under Nolan's sister's name."
I exhaled.
"Good."
Rebecca kept reading.
"There's more."
"Of course there is."
She almost smiled.
"The bank has agreed to continue freezing thirty-nine million dollars pending ownership determination."
"And the other five?"
"Still tracing it."
The car door opened.
Before I got in, Aaron called my name from across the lobby.
He walked toward me without security, assistants, or a board badge.
For the first time since I had known him, he looked like an ordinary man leaving a building.
"Alyssa."
I waited.
He stopped several feet away.
"I meant what I said."
"I know."
"I'm sorry."
"I know."
He swallowed.
"Is there any version of this where you don't hate me?"
I looked at him for a long moment.
"I don't hate you now."
His face changed.
Hope appeared too quickly.
I stopped it before it became another misunderstanding.
"That doesn't mean I'm coming back."
He looked down.
"I know."
"Do you?"
"I'm trying to."
I nodded.
That was all I had for him.
I got into the car.
As we pulled away, I looked back once.
Aaron stood alone beneath the Prescott Systems logo.
May you like
The company still carried his name.
But for the first time, the name no longer guaranteed him a seat inside.
