Chapter 20: The Same Doors

Otto's men came to the Drake at eight, and they found Bridget.

She was sitting in the suite's armchair with a casserole dish in her lap and her phone propped against the lamp.

"Margot's not here," she said. "She asked me to say sorry. She's seeing a lawyer."

The two men looked at the notary behind them, and the notary looked at the proxy renewal in his hand.

"Sign here," one of them said, and then stopped.

Elias's guards had come out of the bedroom.

"Everyone smile," Bridget said. "You're live."

They were gone in less than a minute, and the notary left his pen on the carpet.

On Monday morning Margot stood in the corridor on the twenty-second floor.

It was the same carpet, the same oak doors, and the same silver handles.

She had called this special meeting herself, three days before the annual vote.

She had the right, with forty percent, and she had sent the letter to the board secretary by hand.

Elias had asked to come inside.

She had told him to wait in the lobby again.

He had said, "I'll wait in the corridor this time. Where I can hear."

He stood beside the wall now with his hands in his pockets, and she did not mind.

She pushed the doors open.

Every seat was filled.

Otto sat at the head of the table, and Claire's chair beside him was empty, and he glanced at it once.

"Margot," the chair said. "You've called us here."

"I have." She did not sit. "I have three things to show you, and then I'd like a vote."

Thaddeus's lawyer sat at the side table with a legal pad.

He gave her one short nod.

She put her phone down on the table and pressed play.

The speaker crackled.

"A woman with something to lose is a woman who stays," Otto's voice said, warm and amused. "I let you keep taking it."

Directors looked at each other.

"Is this a joke?" said the old director from the club.

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