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“Margot will be happy to get you anything you need,” Oliver said. “Shall we, Hayden?”
“Yes, I think we shall.” I looked at Bones one last time for moral support.
“Give ‘em hell,” he whispered, loud enough for Oliver to hear.
“I will,” I assured him.
Oliver and I headed toward the double mahogany doors of the board room. “I approve.”
“You don’t even know him,” I said with a smile.
“I’m a good judge of character. And Hayden, before you go in there you should know it’s going to get ugly. Stand your ground. You’ve got me and a couple of other board members as allies. We’ll go to bat for you, but the rest is up to you. Be strong.”
Oliver pulled opened one of the doors and gestured for me to enter first. The board members of my father’s company were already sitting at the table, and they were talking in low voices. One by one, attention turned toward the door to see who’d arrived.
Surprise lit several of their faces. A few of them openly smiled at me. I didn’t smile back. My gaze went to my mother, who sat at the far end of the table looking confused. Her gaze bounced from me to my stepfather who stood next to her.
“Hayden?” my mother asked. “What are you doing here?”
“Only board members are allowed at emergency meetings,” Arnold stated.
“Thank you for being here on such short notice,” I said, addressing the entire room and ignoring Arnold completely. “Yesterday morning, I got married.”
There was a rumble of surprise, followed by some cursing and at least one congratulations.
I waited for the room to calm. “As board members, you know exactly what this means. You’ve all known this day would come since my father died. Well, the day is here, and as of this moment, I’m the new majority shareholder and Chair of the Board of Spencer Pharmaceuticals.”
“Married?” my stepfather spat as his face darkened with annoyance. “We’re just supposed to take your word that you’re married all of a sudden?”
“No, you’re not.” I set the folder I’d carried into the room on the table in front of me and opened it. I pulled out my marriage license and a copy of the trust my father had set in stone and handed it to Oliver. Oliver immediately took the documents to Joyce Lynwood, the company’s General Counsel.
“It’s her marriage license and a copy of the trust,” Joyce announced. “I received an official copy of the license as soon as it was done. It’s been reviewed, and you can be assured that she’s satisfied the legal waiting period and the marriage is bound and filed with the county clerk. It’s official, and the requirements to execute her father’s trust have been fulfilled.”
“Who the hell did you marry?” Arnold snapped.
I met my mother’s stupefied gaze. “Royce Dalton.”
“Let me see that.” My stepfather jumped from his seat, but Joyce was already passing the marriage document to the next board member.
My stepfather nearly ripped it from Bruce Allentown’s hand. He stared at it in disbelief.
“I’ve also updated my personal will and testament.” I didn’t take my eyes off my stepfather when I delivered the final piece of news. “As of this moment, in the unlikely event that I die, Spencer Pharmaceuticals will be dissolved, the patents sold to the highest bidder and all proceeds donated to charity. Shareholders will of course be compensated for any shares held at the market stock price at the time of my death. Do I need to point out that would not be good?”
Arnold’s face morphed into a picture of rage. His eyes bulged like a cartoon character and his nostrils flared.
“This was my father’s company,” I said. “And his vision was always about affordable medication for patients in need of drugs that work as well or better than anything else on the market. He wasn’t interested in maximum profit. It’s why no one believed he’d ever amount to anything, and how he was able to maintain control of the company during its rapid growth before he died. No one was interested until the patents started getting approved and the money began to flow. And then, in the last few years after his death, the company has diverted sharply from his original vision. I intend to rectify that effective immediately. And in order to do so, my first act as Chair of this board is to fire you, Arnold.”
“You can’t fire me!” Arnold bellowed. “You need a unanimous vote. Marilyn, stop your daughter from doing this. She’s a child. This is insane!”
“I can’t,” Mom murmured. She looked confused. Hurt. And completely unsure of what was going on. “The trust has executed. The moment Hayden assumed her rightful seat on the board, I became nothing more than a minority shareholder. My vote is null. Actually, all of our votes are null if she wants you gone.”
Joyce Lynwood nodded in agreement but didn’t say a word.
“You planned this! You planned a coup,” my stepfather raged. He swept his hand across the table, scattering the papers to the floor.
Oliver went to the door of the boardroom and opened it. He stuck out his head and asked the front desk to call for security.
Arnold marched across the room toward me. He looked like he wanted to wring my neck. “You stupid fucking bitch,” he hissed. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? They’re going to come after?—”
