Chapter 10: His Vote Counts Against Him

At noon on Tuesday, one week after he declared me dead, I place Adrian's signed statement beside the emergency vote notice.

Petra turns to the board chair's representative.

"Please read the first line of the agenda."

The representative opens her leather folder.

She has the expression of someone asked to put out a fire with paperwork.

Adrian stands at the end of the conference table in charcoal and navy.

His black pen taps once against the wood.

Three department heads sit along the glass wall.

Beyond the glass, half the operations floor has found a reason to walk past.

"Item one," the representative reads.

"Emergency consideration of voting control for MercerDx during the founder's unresolved incapacity."

"Her incapacity is no longer unresolved," Petra says.

The representative looks at me.

"Dr. Mercer, are you asking the board to treat your presence as decisive?"

"I am asking the board to read its own notice accurately."

Adrian smiles for the room.

"No one is disputing that Lena is alive," he says.

"The court process remains active. The filing protects the company during an extraordinary event."

"You signed this last night," I say, and slide the statement toward the representative.

"It offers to withdraw the vote and restore my title if I endorse your petition as a grieving mistake."

"I offered a practical path forward."

"On Friday you offered more."

I set my phone on the table and press play.

His voice fills the conference room, flattened by the speaker.

It offers my votes back.

Then it names the price, and the price is my silence.

I stop the recording.

The department head nearest the window lets out a breath.

The representative reads the statement again without touching her pen.

"Mr. Mercer, did you make these offers?"

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Declared Me Dead on Tuesday, So I Walked Into Court on Friday from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.