CHAPTER 8: Board Members Under Glass

Upstairs, the private boardroom waited with coffee, polished walnut, and a vote meant to hand Serena permanent operational authority over Blackwood Hotels.
Downstairs, that future began to rot in public.
The lead investor, Malcolm Reeves, stepped out from behind a marble column. He had the exhausted face of a man watching a profitable arrangement become criminal evidence.
'Mr. Blackwood,' he said carefully, 'should we postpone the vote?'
Adrian almost laughed. Postpone sounded absurdly polite for a moment in which his life had split open in front of two children holding toys.
Mara turned to Malcolm. 'You should attend the vote. I have a proxy.'
Serena stared at her. 'You have no standing.'
Mara removed another document. 'I have thirty-one percent of the family trust, two sons with inheritance rights, and a court order preventing any transfer until paternity, fraud, and medical coercion are reviewed.'
No one looked at Serena after that. Rooms like Blackwood Hall worshiped power, and power had just changed hands without raising its voice.