Chapter 11 - The Company VoteClark Residential removed Derek as CEO.
The board vote was six to one.
Derek voted against his own removal.
Mrs. Clark abstained.
He noticed.
Afterward, he confronted her.
“You couldn't even vote for me?”
“I couldn't honestly vote against removal.”
“So you abstained.”
“Yes.”
“Coward.”
Mrs. Clark accepted the word.
“Maybe.”
Derek packed his office into three boxes.
No dramatic security escort.
No shouting.
Just employees watching their former CEO leave.
Some had worked for him for a decade.
One project manager approached.
“My crew hasn't been paid overtime in six weeks.”
Derek looked embarrassed.
“I know.”
“No, Mr. Clark.”
The man’s voice remained respectful.
“You knew numbers. We knew families.”
Derek had no answer.
The company entered restructuring.
Lakeshore Commons would be sold.
Several smaller projects were preserved.
The board hired an outside turnaround manager.
Mrs. Clark agreed to contribute part of her personal holdings only if the restructuring plan removed Derek from financial control.
He called it betrayal.
She called it the first responsible investment she had made in years.
Meanwhile, Amanda filed for divorce.
When Derek received the petition, he stared at the word:
Dissolution
He called.
Amanda answered because their lawyers had agreed communication could occur about household logistics.
“You filed.”
“Yes.”
“You told me separation.”
“I needed time.”
“And now?”
“I know.”
Derek’s voice changed.
“Is there someone else?”
Amanda almost laughed.
“No.”
“Then why not counseling?”
“Because counseling is for relationships where both people are deciding whether trust can be rebuilt.”
“And?”
“I have decided.”
Silence.
Derek whispered:
“You don't love me.”
Amanda closed her eyes.
“That isn't the question.”
“What is?”
“Whether love is enough reason to expose Leo to you again.”
His breath caught.
“I never touched him.”
“No.”
“I never wanted him hurt.”
“No.”
“Then why are you acting like I'm dangerous?”
Amanda answered carefully.
“Because danger isn't only a person who pushes a child.”
Derek said nothing.
“It is also the adult who sees the child falling and decides the problem belongs to someone else.”
He hung up.
Amanda cried afterward.
Divorce did not feel victorious.
She missed the Derek she thought she married.
The dinners.
The jokes.
The way he held her hand on airplanes.
The nights when Leo had a fever and Derek once drove across town for medicine.
That memory complicated everything.
Bad people were easier to leave when every memory was bad.
Derek wasn't that simple.
He had done kind things.
Then he had done cruel, selfish, dangerous things.
Amanda could hold both truths.
So could the law.
No one needed to declare Derek incapable of goodness to conclude he was unsafe in their home.
Later that week, Rosa came to visit Leo.
He ran toward her.
“Rosa!”
She cried.
“You are getting so big.”
Leo pointed to his forehead.
The scrape had faded.
“Boo-boo gone.”
“Yes.”
Amanda watched.
Rosa looked nervous.
“I need to tell you something.”
Amanda braced.
“What?”
“The day Leo fell, Mr. Derek had a bank meeting scheduled at the house.”
Amanda frowned.
“When?”
“Twenty minutes after the fall.”
“That is why he wanted the railing guard removed?”
“I think so.”
“Investors?”
“Two bankers.”
Amanda remembered Derek’s text:
Take down Amanda’s plastic railing guard before Friday. Looks ridiculous.
The fall occurred Friday.
The meeting explained the removal.
Not malicious intent toward Leo.
Image.
Derek prioritized appearance.
Then the meeting never happened because Amanda took Leo to the hospital.
“What happened to the bankers?”
“Mr. Derek canceled.”
Amanda stared.
Rosa continued.
“He told them you had a family emergency.”
Amanda’s jaw tightened.
Of course.
Even then, he had shaped the story.
But Rosa had something else.
“One banker came early.”
Amanda looked up.
“He was outside when Leo fell?”
“In his car.”
“Did he see?”
“I don't know.”
Investigators contacted him.
He had not seen the fall.
But he had seen Derek standing in the front doorway minutes afterward.
And he remembered something strange.
Derek had asked him:
“Can we still do the signing without Amanda?”
The banker said no.
That statement connected the day of Leo’s fall to the financial scheme.
Derek’s priority, even after the accident, had been whether the transaction could proceed.
Amanda sat silently after hearing it.
May you like
The fall had not caused Derek’s financial desperation.
It had revealed what already outranked Leo in his mind.
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