Four Hundred Guests Watched Him Cheat, So I Took Everything He Had novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: The Vote

"A vote," said the woman at the end of the board table, and she stood.

She was the board's oldest member, silver-haired, in a black suit, and she had not clapped once during the toast.

"Mr. Stroud, you've asked for it. We'll take it here, in front of the shareholders' families."

"Of course," Harlan said. "The proxy for the Fenn forty percent is mine to vote. Ellen assigned it."

"I never did," my mother said.

"Mrs. Fenn signed while she was ill."

"Mrs. Fenn signed while she was drugged," said the old woman. "The doctor just said so, in front of four hundred of my friends."

Harlan opened his mouth.

I stepped forward with the brown envelope and put the partnership agreement on the lectern.

"This is the original," I said. "Signed by Daniel Fenn and Harlan Stroud the day they founded this company. It says that if my father's share is ever given up, it goes to his heirs."

The old woman read it.

She read it twice.

"That is your signature, Harlan," she said.

"That was thirty years ago!"

"It's still your signature."

"Then Ellen's proxy is void," said a man at the far end, "and so is the vote."

"Ellen," Harlan said, and for the first time his voice rose. "Ellen, think of your daughter. Think of what you're doing."

"I am," my mother said.

She took the pen from the old woman's hand and signed a single page on the lectern, slowly, in her plain upright E.

"I revoke the proxy," Ellen said. "And I give my husband's share to the only person who ever earned it."

She slid the page toward me.

My hand shook on the pen.

I signed beneath her, and I looked at Harlan, and I felt nothing but peace.

"Forty percent of Stroud Homes," the old woman said. "Seconded by this board. All in favor of seating Ms. Fenn?"

Six hands went up.

"Opposed?"

Two hands went up, and then, slowly, one came down.

"Before you count that," a voice said from the side of the room, "I have something to say."

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