“You saved us?”
“Yes.”
Mother gripped the table.
“Then why let Vanessa take credit?”
“Because she told me protecting Dad’s pride mattered more than receiving praise. I believed her.”
Vanessa slapped the folder against the podium.
“This changes nothing. Dad appointed me CEO.”
“An appointment requiring board approval,” Elliot said. “Hawthorne holds four of seven seats. The motion has been rejected.”
The reporters started typing.
Derek headed toward the exit, but the process server blocked him and handed him an envelope.
I displayed the transfers to his shell company.
“Four hundred twenty thousand dollars,” I said. “Taken from renovation accounts while employees were told their health benefits had to be reduced.”
“It was consulting income,” Derek stammered.
“Then you can explain why your company has no employees, office, invoices, or tax filings.”
Vanessa turned toward Father.
“Tell her to stop!”
He suddenly looked twenty years older.
“Did you forge my signature?”
“I was protecting the business!”
“You bought a Porsche.”
Mother hurried onto the stage.
“Claire, whatever she did, she’s your sister. We’ll handle this privately.”
I looked at the woman who had humiliated me in front of the same family I had kept from ruin.
