Chapter 6 - The Board Meeting
Victor demanded another board hearing from federal custody.
His attorneys claimed Ethan was mentally compromised by trauma and incapable of managing Blackwood Industries.
They argued Lily’s identity remained uncertain despite the emergency DNA test.
They questioned Amelia’s competency.
They accused federal agents of coercion.
The strategy was clear.
If Victor could not seize the company physically, he would bury Ethan beneath litigation and public doubt.
Several board members supported an independent leadership vote.
Some feared the scandal would destroy the corporation.
Others had received money from Victor.
Ethan agreed to the hearing.
Not because Victor deserved it.
Because the company needed every lie spoken in the open.
The meeting took place in a federal courthouse under security.
Victor entered wearing prison clothes beneath a dark jacket.
He smiled when he saw Ethan.
“You look tired.”
“You look arrested.”
Victor sat opposite him.
The board’s temporary chair opened proceedings.
Victor’s attorney presented medical evaluations claiming Amelia had severe delusions and could not reliably identify her daughter.
All evaluations were signed by doctors connected to Dr. Collins.
Ethan’s attorney introduced independent assessments showing Amelia’s confusion resulted from years of involuntary medication.
Victor’s attorney then attacked Lily’s birth records.
“The bracelet could have been planted.”
The federal DNA specialist testified.
The first test confirmed Ethan’s paternity.
A second confirmed Amelia’s maternity.
Lily was their biological daughter.
Victor showed no emotion.
Then the attorney argued that Ethan endangered the company by bringing a child into a corporate meeting.
Lily was not present this time.
Ethan answered:
“My daughter was not a strategy. She was a person your client tried to erase.”
The board questioned Victor directly.
Director Helen Price asked, “Did you know Amelia Blackwood was alive?”
Victor leaned back.
“I believed she required treatment.”
“For seven years?”
“She was dangerous.”
“To whom?”
“To the stability of this organization.”
“What had she discovered?”
Victor glanced toward Ethan.
“She found evidence that several Blackwood medical subsidiaries conducted unauthorized trials.”
The room fell silent.
Amelia had uncovered experimental treatments performed on poor patients without informed consent.
Some suffered permanent injuries.
Victor concealed the results to protect a merger.
When Amelia threatened to report everything, he planned the fire.
“You killed patients,” Ethan said.
“I protected thousands of jobs.”
“You imprisoned my wife.”
“She refused to understand consequences.”
“You stole my daughter.”
“She was safer away from you.”
Ethan nearly stood, but Amelia’s earlier words returned:
Do not let him make anger look like madness.
He remained seated.
The board heard testimony from rescued patients.
A woman named Rebecca Dale described being declared dead after she threatened her wealthy husband with divorce.
Jacob’s grandparents learned their grandson had been alive for ten years.
Sofia’s mother collapsed when shown current video of her daughter.
The scandal was no longer a family dispute.
Victor’s system had destroyed dozens of lives.
Then Margaret Sloan entered under guard.
She had agreed to testify.
Victor’s confidence weakened.
Margaret described the hospital fire, the false death certificates, and Victor’s plan for Collins.
“Why cooperate now?” Victor’s attorney asked.
“Because Malcolm left me to die in the server room.”
“So revenge?”
“Truth does not become false because it arrives through betrayal.”
Margaret produced a copy of Victor’s succession plan.
It listed Lily under the code:
ASSET L-1
Not daughter.
Not child.
Asset.
Ethan looked at Victor.
“You never saw her as human.”
Victor replied calmly.
“An heir is an asset.”
The board voted.
Victor was permanently removed from every Blackwood position.
Ethan was confirmed as interim chairman only until an independent governance structure could be created.
He refused permanent personal control.
“The Blackwood family has held too much power for too long,” he said.
Employee representatives, medical ethics experts, and patient advocates would join the board.
Victor laughed.
“You’re giving away your daughter’s inheritance.”
“No. I’m giving her the freedom not to inherit your crimes.”
After the meeting, Ethan received a message from Nora.
A photograph showed Collins inside a private aircraft.
Beside him sat Lily.
Ethan’s heart stopped.
He immediately called the hospital.
Lily had disappeared during a supervised garden visit.
A guard had been drugged.
Nora’s message contained four words:
THE HEIR BELONGS TO US.
Victor had lost the company.
May you like
His son intended to steal the child.
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