Chapter 9 - The Eviction of an Architect
“Let go of me!”
Jerome wheezed,
his breath coming in ragged,
panicked gasps as the guards held him firmly in place.
“Henry!
Arthur!
You can't let them do this!
I am the Chief Executive Officer of this company!
I am the founder!”
Cornelius Hail stepped up beside me,
holding a single sheet of paper in his leather-gloved hands.
“As of eight twelve this morning,
Mister Chase,”
Cornelius said,
his voice cutting through Jerome’s shouting with absolute authority,
“the board has accepted your immediate termination for gross misconduct and breach of fiduciary duty.
The resolution was passed unanimously by proxy.”
Henry Vance slowly raised his right hand,
followed by the other nine directors around the table.
Not a single person looked at Jerome.
They looked at me,
their eyes filled with the cautious,
respectful fear reserved for someone who had just dismantled an empire with surgical precision.
“The resolution passes,”
Henry murmured,
his voice heavy with shame.
“Mister Chase is removed from all corporate offices,
directorships,
and executive titles,
effective immediately.”
Sarah Sterling signaled to the process servers.
One of them stepped forward,
slapped a thick blue document onto the table directly in front of Jerome’s nose,
and said,
“Jerome Chase,
you are formally served with a temporary restraining order,
an asset freeze injunction,
and a notice of grand jury investigation.
You are instructed to vacate these premises immediately without removing any corporate property,
records,
or electronic devices.”
The guards pulled Jerome up from the table.
His suit was rumpled,
his hair disheveled,
and his silk tie hung loosely from his unbuttoned collar.
All the charm,
all the commanding elegance that had carried him through the boardrooms of Wall Street,
had vanished completely.
He looked like a petty thief caught in the act.
He turned his bloodshot eyes toward me,
his lip trembling with a mixture of hatred and pathetic desperation.
“Leona,”
he begged,
his voice breaking into a rasp.
“Please.
Think of what we had.
Twenty years.
We were partners.
We built this life together.
You can't throw me out onto the street like a common criminal.”
I reached into my handbag,
pulled out a small velvet box,
opened it,
and removed the platinum wedding band I had worn since I was thirty-one years old.
I placed the ring on the glass table directly between us.
It made a tiny,
hollow clink that seemed to swallow all the remaining oxygen in the room.
“We were never partners,
Jerome,”
I said,
my voice steady,
cold,
and final.
“You were an investment that failed to perform.
And I have just written you off as a total loss.”
The guards turned him toward the door,
marching him out of the boardroom.
As he passed through the double doors,
scores of Northgate employees lined the hallways,
watching in stunned silence as their once-untouchable Chief Executive Officer was escorted toward the service elevators like a trespasser.
His screams and protests echoed down the marble corridor until the elevator doors chimed and closed,
May you like
cutting him off from the world he had stolen,
and the life he would never see again.
