Chapter 5 - The Board Meeting Jason Prepared
The emergency board meeting began at eight the next morning.
Jason arrived with three attorneys.
Malcolm arrived with six directors who had already signed a motion declaring me temporarily unfit to serve as chief executive.
The basis was the pool footage.
A twenty second clip circulated overnight showing me emerging from the water while Jason held torn papers and guests shouted. The video began after he pushed me and ended before Reed spoke.
To anyone who had not seen the full recording, it looked like the aftermath of a drunken argument.
Malcolm opened the meeting with practiced sorrow.
“Ava, no one questions what you built. We are concerned about whether you are capable of protecting it while under extreme personal stress.”
I looked around the glass conference room.
Carter Dynamics occupied the top eighteen floors of a tower I had purchased after our public offering. My name appeared nowhere in the lobby because Jason once said founder worship looked insecure.
I had allowed other people to erase me in small, respectable ways.
That morning, every chair felt like evidence.
Reed placed certified copies of the original prenuptial agreement before the directors.
Jason did not touch his.
“The marriage document is irrelevant,” Malcolm said.
“It is relevant when the incapacity motion was organized by the spouse whose voting proxy terminated after he assaulted the founder.”
Jason leaned forward.
“She attacked me first.”
“Show us.”
His attorney connected a video.
It showed me entering the terrace, taking a glass from Tiffany, and speaking to Jason near the pool. The sound had been removed. The next section showed Jason stepping backward while I raised one hand.
Then the video jumped.
I was in the water.
“He edited out the shove,” Director Nadia Brooks said.
Nadia had served as my chief financial officer for nine years. She was one of the few people in the room who had challenged Jason openly.
Malcolm replied, “We cannot assume manipulation simply because the footage is incomplete.”
Reed played Tiffany’s recovered livestream.
Jason’s hands hit my shoulders.
My body disappeared into the pool.
Guests laughed.
Malcolm’s recorded voice spoke from behind the column.
Cover activates after forty five seconds.
The directors looked at him.
Malcolm did not deny the voice immediately.
That pause destroyed his first defense.
Then he said the recording had been manufactured using artificial intelligence developed by my own company.
Jason smiled.
They had prepared for the evidence.
Carter Dynamics specialized in identity verification, synthetic media detection, and secure voice authentication. Any audio against them could be dismissed as technology created by us.
Nadia opened an independent forensic report.
“The livestream was uploaded to a third party platform before Ava entered the pool. Its encryption signature cannot be altered without detection.”
Malcolm looked at her.
“You commissioned this overnight?”
“I began six weeks ago.”
The room shifted.
Nadia revealed that she and I had been monitoring irregular transfers connected to Jason, Malcolm, and JTC Strategic Holdings. We did not know the full plan, but we knew a board action was coming.
I allowed the party to continue because Reed had already secured the original agreement, Marcus controlled the cameras, and the decoy papers contained invisible trace fibers identifying anyone who handled them.
Jason had torn them in front of two hundred witnesses.
The pool cover was the part we had not anticipated.
That knowledge brought no triumph.
Preparation had protected the company.
Instinct had saved my life.
Malcolm called for the vote anyway.
Four directors supported my suspension.
Three opposed.
Two abstained.
The deciding vote belonged to the Carter Continuity Trust.
Reed was one trustee.
The second remained undisclosed.
Under the annex, both trustees had to agree.
Reed voted against suspension.
A remote vote arrived through the secure board system.
The second trustee voted in favor.
My stomach tightened.
Only someone with the trust credentials could cast it.
“Identify the trustee,” I said.
Reed looked toward the screen.
The authorization name had finally become visible because the annex was active.
Thomas Carter.
My father.
The room became silent.
Jason’s smile disappeared.
Malcolm closed his eyes briefly.
He had not expected the name to display publicly.
I looked at Reed.
“You told me the other trustee was unknown.”
“I told you I could not disclose it.”
“He is dead.”
Reed said nothing.
The secure system registered a live biometric confirmation from a private terminal in Nevada.
The same state where my father’s plane crashed.
Jason stood abruptly.
“This proves the trust is compromised.”
“No,” Malcolm said.
His voice was lower now.
“It proves Thomas never intended Ava to control the company forever.”
I turned toward him.
“You have spoken to him.”
Malcolm looked at the directors.
The mask of concern disappeared.
“Thomas believes Carter Dynamics has become too dependent on one person.”
“He invested in me.”
“He invested in a succession plan.”
The second trustee’s vote created a tie rather than removing me because Jason’s proxy had terminated.
Malcolm needed one more director.
Nadia opened the financial audit.
Before she could present it, every screen in the conference room changed.
Tiffany appeared in a live video.
Her hands were tied.
Blood marked the side of her face.
A man stood behind her outside the camera frame.
She looked directly at me.
May you like
“Ava, your father says to surrender the Continuity Annex.”
Continue to the next part: Ava receives a live message from Tiffany proving the conspiracy can access the trust and may be holding her father’s former partner hostage.
