Chapter 5
“Then wait outside.”
I placed my folder on the table.
“No.”
Chloe gave a small laugh.
“Mrs. Sterling, we have confidential business to discuss.”
I turned toward her.
“Then perhaps you should take a seat, Miss Bennett. This concerns you too.”
Ethan slammed his palm against the table.
“Enough! You cannot walk into my company and start issuing orders.”
Before I could respond, the board secretary stood.
“Mr. Sterling, Mrs. Sterling has every right to attend.”
Ethan stared at him.
“What?”
The secretary cleared his throat.
“She represents Ashford Capital Partners, the majority voting shareholder.”
My mother-in-law frowned.
“Majority shareholder?”
David entered the room behind me.
He carried a thick stack of documents.
“Sixty-two percent,” he said.
The silence was absolute.
Ethan slowly turned toward him.
“David, what are you doing?”
“My job.”
David placed copies of the shareholder register before the directors.
“Ashford Capital Partners controls sixty-two percent of the voting shares. Mrs. Sterling is its sole beneficial owner.”
Ethan’s face drained of color.
“That’s impossible.”
I opened the blue folder.
“Is it?”
I slid a document across the table.
“Your signature is on page seventeen.”
He stared at it.
I watched recognition spread across his face.
Four years earlier, he had signed the investment agreement.
He knew.
He had always known.
But he had apparently convinced himself that my love would prevent me from exercising the rights attached to my investment.
His mother rose from her chair.
“This is outrageous! Ethan built this company!”
I turned toward her.
“Ethan developed a promising business. When it nearly collapsed, my family invested $1.5 billion to save it.”
She opened her mouth.
I continued.
“The company also relies on thirteen patents licensed by my family’s intellectual property holding company.”
One director leaned forward.
“Are you saying those patents aren't owned by Sterling Dynamics?”
“Correct.”
Chloe's expression changed.
For the first time, she looked genuinely frightened.
Ethan stood.
“Clara, whatever you're trying to prove, stop it.”
I looked directly at him.
“Yesterday, you told me to remember my place.”
He swallowed.
“Well, Ethan, this is my place.”
I pulled out the chair at the head of the table.
The one he had occupied for years.
“Please move.”
He stared at me.
Nobody spoke.
Then the board secretary said quietly, “Mr. Sterling, Mrs. Sterling is chairing the special shareholder session.”
Ethan stepped aside.
I sat down.
And for the first time in four years, the room understood who had actually been holding the company together.