Chapter 6: Seven Votes

The board met at nine the next morning, in the boardroom on the second floor.

I walked in with my lawyer.

Seven chairs sat around the oval table.

Ruggero was in one of them, in a fresh suit, with a minute book open in front of him.

"This is a closed meeting," he said. "Caterina resigned her seat in March."

"No," my lawyer said. "Her aunt signed a form she had no authority to sign."

She set a paper on the table.

"We served the withdrawal of that authority last week."

"It was dated before that."

"It was dated the week the company started moving money."

He didn't answer.

I took the empty chair at the foot of the table. Nobody stopped me.

Donata sat at the other end with her hands folded.

She had not slept. Her makeup was perfect and her eyes were red.

"I'll be quick," I said. "I own seventy percent of this company."

I let that sit.

"I can replace the board with a signature, and I'd rather not."

I looked down the table.

"So I'm asking you instead."

I looked at each of them.

"Do you want a chief of finance who put my name on a document I never saw?"

Nobody moved.

The sales director stared at the table.

He had carried my father's coffin.

He had worked for my family for thirty years.

He cleared his throat.

"I asked about the shares," he said.

"Nobody could tell me who was getting them. I told myself they hadn't decided yet."

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