“So noted,” Josie said. “Dragova?”
The pause was theatrical. Francene let it breathe. She had a desperation, Sawyer had always thought, for wanting to be interesting. “Against,” she said, finally. “Though I do think there are legitimate questions about the pace and communication of the Phoenix Ridge pivot that we should address in the next governance review.”
“Noted. Dawson?”
Renee Dawson, who had sat in relative quiet at the far corner and who Sawyer privately considered the most useful board member she had behind Josie, because she was one of only three who read the actual financial documents before meeting about them, looked up from the table. “Against.”
“And I vote against the motion,” Josie said. “Motion fails, six to zero.” She closed the folder. “Sawyer?”
“Thank you.” She stood. “The company is going to be fine. The strategic redirection is already underway, the renewable energy partnership framework is in early-stage diligence, and I want you all to see the revised Q3 projections by end of month. Martha will schedule that separately.” She glanced across the room. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some other business to attend to.”
Josie nodded. She already knew. No doubt she would inform the others of what was about to happen.
Sawyer walked out, and found Gina was in the corridor.
“Ah, you’re here. We weren’t sure whether to expect you.”
Gina’s eyes went to the closed boardroom door and back. She was doing math. She watched it. The calculation of the result in the room, and what it meant for the result of her gamble, and the conclusion those two data points arrived at when placed side by side.
“The vote—” she started.
“Failed.” Sawyer clasped her hands behind her back. “Six to zero.”
Gina’s jaw clenched once, fast, then released. “Sawyer?—”
“Gina.” She said her name with exactly enough patience to indicate she intended to use it only once. “You filed a motion against my leadership to a board I’ve spent fifteen years cultivating over a strategic decision that I have every legal and fiduciary right to make. I want you to understand that I’m not angry. I’m not interested in making this dramatic. I’m telling you clearly: it’s time for you to find a new position.”
Gina was utterly still. “You’re serious?” she demanded, though the fight had already gone out of it.
“I don’t do anything insincere.” She nodded toward the boardroom door. “Go in and ask, if you’d like. HR will have your severance package drafted by end of week. It’ll be fair; I have never been ungenerous with exits, and I won’t start now.” Sawyer stepped back slightly, opening the hall. “I’d recommend not making a speech.”
Gina looked at the floor. Then at the door. Sawyer noted, with no shortage of disgust, that she didn’t have the guts to look her in the eye before she shuffled back down the hallway and out of sight.
Satisfied, but not smug, Sawyer walked back to her office, sat down, and opened her email. There were forty-two new messages. She read the subject lines in order, flagged four, archived eleven, and was drafting a response to the third when her phone lit up on the desk beside her.
“Good morning,” Nellie’s text read. “You left. I’m choosing to believe this means you’re a committed professional and not that I snore too loudly.”
Sawyer smiled before turning the phone face-down. Ever the committed professional,she finished the email, sent it, and picked the phone back up.
“Your snoring is adorable,” she typed. “I had a board meeting.”
The reply was immediate. “I suppose I’ll let you off.”
At this point, Sawyer Alburn could accurately have been described as smug.
“Try not to miss me too much.”
“I don’t know what you mean,” Nellie pinged back. “I’m too busy enjoying the view to miss you.”
Grinning to herself like that cat that got the cream, Sawyer almost jumped out of her chair when Martha’s voice came through the intercom. “Francene has three follow-up questions about the governance review timeline.”
“Schedule a call for Friday.”
“And Josie asked if you’d like lunch.”
“Tell her we can do tomorrow. I’m thinking about taking the rest of the day off.”
“I’ll clear your schedule.”
