Betrayed By Husband, Stolen By Brother In Law

Chapter 443: Beaten

Max gave a slow smile at the threat and leaned back in his chair, as he steepled his fingers and said lightly "There seems to be a slight misunderstanding."

Mr. James frowned. "What kind of misunderstanding could there be, Max? The vote was unanimous. You’ve been removed. It’s over. Naturally, you should leave."

A faint chuckle escaped Max. "Oh, I don’t doubt the vote was unanimous," he said, nodding as if amused by the whole thing. "But we haven’t quite followed the agenda, have we?"

That caught their attention. The men exchanged uncertain looks.

Max reached out, tapping his fingers against the paper in front of him. "If you recall, there were three points on the agenda. ’Review of current leadership and company performance,’ ’Proposal for restructuring of the board,’ and finally, ’Voting on motion to remove the CEO.’"

He paused just long enough to let his words sink in. "You all seem to have skipped the first two and jumped straight to the last. Now, I don’t know how you all conduct your little coups, but in my boardroom, we follow the order."

The directors frowned. Hanley leaned forward. "What’s the point of that? The main purpose of this meeting was the motion against you. Everyone knows that. We’ve already decided-"

"You’re mistaken," Max cut in smoothly, his voice lowering enough to sound even more dangerous. "You’re mistaken about a lot of things, Mr. Hanley."

The room went still.

Mr. James’s jaw tightened. "What exactly are you implying?"

Max tilted his head slightly, as if considering the question. Then he stood up and walked toward the far end of the table, his fingers brushing against the chair backs as he passed. When he spoke again, his voice was calm, almost conversational.

"Let’s start with this so-called ’restructuring’ you’ve all conveniently ignored. You see, before this meeting, I had a few things reviewed by legal."

He stopped behind Mr. James’s chair. "Turns out, as per our bylaws, any change in board composition must be presented before voting on leadership matters. And since I had reason to believe certain members of this board were... shall we say, abusing their positions for personal gain, I decided it was time to act."

James stiffened in his seat. "What are you talking about?"

Max smiled faintly. "Oh, I’m talking about you, James. And Hanley too, since he seems to think I don’t know what he’s been doing with the supplier contracts."

Hanley went pale. "That’s absurd!"

"Is it?" Max asked, turning to him. "Because the finance department provided me with some very interesting numbers last week. Inflated invoices from a vendor called ’Harrison Logistics.’ I did a bit of digging and, guess what? The company doesn’t exist. Not legally, anyway. Its listed owner, however, does have a rather interesting connection to your brother-in-law, doesn’t he?"

Hanley’s mouth opened, but no words came out.

James slammed his hand on the table. "This is ridiculous! You can’t make baseless accusations in an official meeting."

"Baseless?" Max raised an eyebrow. "Would you like me to read out the documentation?" He extended his hand and the secretary handed him a file which he threw in the middle. "THis is an amusing read. Take a look. I’m sure you’ll find it... enlightening."

Mr James glared at the file as if it might explode.

"As for you, Mr James," Max continued, turning his attention back to him, "you’ve been quietly approving expense reimbursements for personal use under departmental overheads. Luxury travel, private events, and even that little villa purchase under ’client hospitality.’"

"That’s—"

"Don’t bother denying it," Max interrupted. "The auditors have everything. And by the way, I’ve already submitted those reports to the legal team. So, before you start calling security, maybe think about who exactly they’ll be escorting out."

The silence that followed was heavy and suffocating. The old men stared at him with tense faces! These were the things they had been hopin gto push under the table by bringing in Adam Collins. Because Max has started sniffing around. They had hoped that by the time Adam came in officially, he would end up in a fight with Max to secure his position , thus hiding their transgressions. But now...

Hanley was the first to speak. "You... you can’t fire us. The board must vote—"

"Of course," Max said smoothly, walking back to his chair. "And that’s exactly what we’ll do." He sat down again, folded his hands on the table, and looked directly at James. "I vote for your removal from the board of directors, Mr. James. Effective immediately."

Then, before anyone could react, he raised his hand. "All in favor—oh wait," he said, feigning surprise. "You’re not eligible to vote on your own termination, are you?"

James’s face darkened, but Max ignored him. He raised his hand again, calmly. "I also vote for Mr. Hanley’s removal, on grounds of ethical misconduct and breach of fiduciary duty."

Hanley half-rose from his chair. "This is outrageous! You don’t have the authority to—"

Max turned his gaze on him, cool and steady. "Actually, I do. You see, while you were busy plotting this little ambush, you overlooked one very important clause in our corporate policy-the one that allows the sitting CEO to initiate an emergency restructuring vote when board members are suspected of misconduct. And since both of you fit that description perfectly, I exercised that right this morning."

He opened the file and slid a few papers across the table. "Signed and witnessed. Effective immediately."

James and Hanley both stared at the documents as if they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

"You can’t-"

"Oh, but I can," Max said quietly, cutting him off again. "And I have."

Then, as if to twist the knife, he lifted his hand once more. "I vote for the motion." He lowered it slowly. Then, with a faint smile, he raised it again. "I also vote on behalf of Adam Collins."

The room froze. freewebnøvel.com

For a long moment, no one spoke. Then one of the directors found his voice. "You... what did you just say?"

Max looked at him, expression unreadable. "I said, I vote on Adam’s behalf. You all assumed Mr. James was his proxy-but that assumption was wrong. You can go ahead and check the document in front of you."

Mr. James looked stunned. "That’s impossible. Adam must have made me his proxy. He and you... he said-"

"He said nothing to you directly, did he?" Max asked calmly. "He only let you assume it. Probably because someone," his gaze flicked to Hanley, "was too eager to get rid of me."

He tapped the file again. "The proxy was submitted to the legal department yesterday and countersigned this morning by Adam himself. Witnessed and filed. Adam appointed me to vote on his behalf in all board matters until his return. Which means..."

He leaned forward, and smiled "...his vote goes where mine does."

For a few seconds, the room was dead silent except for the sound of someone’s pen dropping onto the table.

James’s face turned crimson. "You-this is manipulation!"

"No," Max said with a thin smile. "This is procedure. Something you all should’ve paid more attention to before trying to stage a coup."

He looked around the table, his gaze steady, calm, and dangerous. "So, as it stands, the restructuring motion passes. Mr. James and Mr. Hanley are officially removed from their positions. Effective immediately. Their company access will be revoked by the end of the day."

James slammed his hand against the table again, but his voice shook now. "You’ll regret this, Max!"

"I doubt that," Max said evenly, gathering the papers into a neat stack. "Adam and I built this company from the ground up. I know its rules, its people, and its heartbeat better than any of you ever will. You really thought Adam would give the company to you on a platter just because we are having our differences? Adam did all this to let you all come out and reveal yourselves. You see, today, it was all about cleaning the board from the rotten members. Tsk tsk. You thought to use Adam against me... But, you really don’t know Adam at all."

Hanley’s face twisted. "You think this changes anything? The others will still vote against you—"

"Maybe," Max said, cutting him off with a faint shrug. "But they’ll think twice before siding with men who just got exposed for corruption. Don’t you agree?"

Neither man answered and as they looked around the room, they realized that not one of their partners was looking at them, avoiding eyes...

"Now then, gentlemen, since the first two items on the agenda have been addressed—the review and the restructuring—we can move on to the third, can’t we?"

He smiled faintly as he looked around the table. "Go ahead. Call for another vote. Let’s see how many still dare to raise their hands."

No one moved.

He turned toward the door, pausing just long enough to give them one last glance. "Adam and I are more than best friends and business partners. So, let this morning be a lesson for everyone who thinks they can use anything between us as a way to profit yourselves. Now, if you’ll excuse me, get out, please. I have a company to run."