Chapter 6 - The BoardroomMarcus arrived at Merrick Residential Group headquarters at 11:17 a.m.
His access badge no longer worked.
That told him everything.
A security guard who had known him for thirteen years looked embarrassed.
“Mr. Merrick…”
Marcus raised a hand.
“I understand.”
Olivia and Rebecca stood beside him.
Rebecca produced a letter.
“We’re here to retrieve personal property and preserve documents subject to anticipated litigation.”
The guard called upstairs.
Ten minutes later Ethan descended.
He looked terrible.
“You shouldn’t have come.”
Marcus stared at him.
“You voted against me?”
Ethan looked away.
“I’m not a director.”
“But you advised them.”
“I advised them based on what I was given.”
“By Franklin.”
“Yes.”
Rebecca stepped in.
“What evidence did he present?”
Ethan hesitated.
Then handed her a folder.
Inside were emails between Marcus and Olivia.
Except Marcus had never written them.
One supposedly said:
Once Franklin is out, we liquidate the trust position and take control.
Olivia read it.
“That’s fake.”
Marcus checked the sending address.
It looked correct.
Rebecca asked, “Do you still have access to your email server?”
Ethan nodded.
“Preserve every header and authentication log.”
“I already did.”
Marcus looked at him.
“Why?”
Ethan swallowed.
“Because something about the documents bothered me.”
“What?”
“One email was supposedly sent from Marcus’s account at 2:13 a.m. on March 6.”
“So?”
“I was with Marcus that night.”
Marcus remembered.
A delayed flight from Denver.
They had been in an airport conference room until almost three.
Ethan continued.
“The message originated from an IP address assigned to a network inside Franklin’s private office.”
Olivia stared.
“Then why did the board suspend him?”
“Because I learned that after the vote.”
Rebecca smiled without humor.
“Convenient timing.”
Ethan looked ashamed.
“I should have checked first.”
Marcus understood the feeling too well.
Franklin’s greatest weapon was speed.
Give people something frightening.
Demand a decision before they could verify it.
Marcus had fallen for it with Olivia.
The board had just done the same.
Rebecca asked, “Who voted for suspension?”
Ethan named four directors.
Two were longtime Franklin loyalists.
One was Franklin himself.
The fourth surprised Marcus.
Caroline Voss.
She had been Marcus’s strongest supporter.
“Why Caroline?”
Ethan lowered his voice.
“Franklin told her Graymark would call the loan immediately if you remained CEO.”
Marcus stared.
“The loan he concealed?”
“Yes.”
The structure became clear.
Franklin had created the crisis.
Then used the crisis to demand more power.
Exactly as he always did.
Rebecca said, “We file today.”
By afternoon, the petition sought temporary restrictions preventing Franklin from transferring trust-controlled shares, altering relevant corporate records, or entering new related-party obligations.
The court scheduled an emergency hearing for the next morning.
Franklin responded publicly.
A statement reached business reporters before sunset.
Merrick Residential Group is addressing internal governance concerns involving former executive leadership and unauthorized disclosure of confidential records.
Former executive leadership.
Marcus read the line twice.
“He wants the story established before facts catch up.”
Olivia nodded.
“That’s what he did to me.”
Marcus looked at her.
The parallel was impossible to miss.
That evening, Marcus returned home.
Theo was sitting at the kitchen table drawing.
Marcus sat beside him.
“What are you making?”
“A house.”
The drawing showed the mansion.
But the basement was missing.
Marcus noticed.
Theo noticed him noticing.
“I don’t like downstairs.”
“You don’t have to go there.”
“Ever?”
“Ever, if you don’t want to.”
Theo colored quietly.
Then he said, “Grandpa was scared of my picture.”
Marcus leaned forward.
“The one on your tablet?”
Theo nodded.
“He deleted another one too.”
Marcus froze.
“Another picture?”
“I took two.”
“Of what?”
“The first was Grandpa writing your name.”
“And the second?”
Theo searched his memory.
“The red book.”
Marcus looked at Olivia.
She had entered silently.
“What red book?” she asked.
Theo shrugged.
“The one Grandpa put in his drawer.”
“What did it look like?”
“Red leather. Gold lines.”
Olivia’s face changed.
Marcus saw it.
“You know it?”
“No.”
But she was already moving toward Theo’s tablet.
They checked the cloud archive.
Only one deleted photograph appeared.
Then Olivia remembered something.
“The family account syncs photographs when devices are on Wi-Fi. If the tablet was temporarily offline when Franklin deleted the second image—”
“It may have uploaded elsewhere later,” Marcus finished.
They checked the home network backup.
There it was.
The second photograph.
Franklin’s hand covered part of the image.
But the red leather book was visible.
On the open page were columns of numbers.
Names.
Dates.
And at the top, handwritten in Franklin’s unmistakable script:
E. MERRICK TRUST — OFF-BOOK ADVANCES
Samuel stared at the photograph for a long time.
Then he whispered:
“That book could explain where every missing dollar went.”
Marcus looked at the image.
“Where is it now?”
Theo answered before anyone else.
“Grandpa took it downstairs.”
Marcus turned.
“Downstairs where?”
Theo’s face tightened.
May you like
He pointed toward the floor.
“Near the freezer.”
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