Chapter 15 - The ChairwomanElise refused to believe it.
“Helen?”
Grace placed the correspondence on the desk.
Helen Sawyer had served on the board for eleven years.
Cecilia trusted her.
Elise trusted her.
The emails were cautious.
Not criminal.
But troubling.
Helen had discussed “strategic alternatives” with Calder Rowe.
She had also met privately with Trevor.
Adrian joined them.
“This doesn’t mean she knew about the fraud.”
Elise looked at him.
“She knew about the buyer.”
“Yes.”
“And never told me.”
“Yes.”
The next morning, Elise requested a meeting.
Helen arrived alone.
She looked tired.
Elise placed the emails in front of her.
Helen did not deny them.
“I should have told you.”
“That seems to be everyone’s favorite sentence.”
“Elise—”
“Did you conspire with Trevor?”
“No.”
“Did you want to sell Ward & Finch?”
“I wanted the board to consider options.”
“Without telling the controlling shareholder?”
“I believed you would reject the conversation emotionally.”
Elise stared.
Helen realized the insult.
“I mean because of your mother’s legacy.”
“Everyone keeps deciding that sentiment makes me stupid.”
“I did not say that.”
“You didn’t have to.”
Helen admitted Trevor approached her ten months earlier.
He argued Ward & Finch was undercapitalized and could command a premium from Calder Rowe.
Helen agreed a sale should at least be studied.
“Did you know he was moving money through Naomi?”
“No.”
“Did you know he was forging my emails?”
“No.”
“Did you know he was sleeping with my sister?”
Helen looked shocked.
“No.”
Elise studied her reaction.
It seemed genuine.
“Did you know he planned to use the consulting payments to undermine me?”
“No.”
Helen’s voice hardened.
“If I had, I would have removed him immediately.”
“Yet your conversations gave him confidence the board might support a sale.”
Helen looked down.
“Yes.”
There it was.
Another person who had not committed Trevor’s crimes—
but had helped create the environment he needed.
Elise sat opposite her.
“Why didn’t you come to me?”
“Because every time acquisition or sale came up, you said your mother built the company to stay independent.”
“That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t review numbers.”
“I assumed.”
“You assumed wrong.”
Helen nodded.
“Yes.”
Elise hated how much honesty hurt.
Helen had underestimated her.
But Elise also had to face something uncomfortable.
She had rejected strategic conversations quickly.
She had used Cecilia’s memory as an answer.
Trevor had exploited weaknesses that were real.
That did not justify anything.
But if Elise intended to lead Ward & Finch after him, she had to become better.
Not merely survive.
Helen then revealed something else.
“Trevor wanted a formal valuation.”
“When?”
“Eight months ago.”
“The same month he formed Naomi’s shell company.”
Helen nodded.
“He said a family dispute might make a sale necessary.”
Elise’s stomach tightened.
“He predicted the dispute?”
“He said Naomi was unhappy about her trust.”
Of course.
Trevor was manufacturing the problem while presenting himself as the man insightful enough to anticipate it.
Helen slid a document across the table.
“I kept this because something about it bothered me.”
It was a handwritten page Trevor had left after a meeting.
A rough calculation.
Elise’s shares.
Naomi’s eventual trust shares.
Executive shares.
Board influence.
At the bottom:
E out = path clear.
Elise stared.
Helen whispered, “I thought E meant equity.”
Grace looked at her.
“It meant Elise.”
Helen covered her mouth.
For the first time, the board chair looked frightened.
“I’m sorry.”
Elise stood.
“I don’t need another apology.”
“What do you need?”
“Your cooperation.”
Helen nodded.
“You have it.”
That afternoon, Helen voluntarily turned over her emails and calendars to investigators.
The board expanded the forensic review.
Trevor lost an ally he had assumed would protect him.
But just before sunset, Elise received a call from mansion security.
Someone had tried to enter the property using Trevor’s old access code.
The code failed.
Security cameras captured the person leaving.
It was not Trevor.
May you like
It was Rachel Kessler.
And she had been carrying a small metal lockbox.
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