Chapter 6 - The Unraveling
"We can settle this," Gregory said, his voice raw. He stepped toward me, his movements jerky. "We were supposed to be a team. I still believe that. We can combine the companies. Think of the synergy—your production capacity and our distribution networks. We’d be unstoppable."
I didn’t even look up from the documents I was laying out. "Synergy, Gregory? Is that what you call corporate raiding? You weren't looking for a partner. You were looking for a liquidation event."
I slid a file across the table. It was thick, bound in black, and contained every transaction I had tracked over the last three months. "This is a record of the shell companies you used to inflate your Austin stock options. And this," I pointed to a separate document, "is a confession from the auditor you bribed last winter. He’s already spoken to the SEC."
Meredith let out a strangled gasp, collapsing into her chair. "You can't do this. We are the Carters! We have legacy, we have connections—"
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"You have nothing," I interrupted, my voice sharp as glass. "My grandmother arrived in this country with a broken sewing machine and a name she had to keep hidden to survive. She built her empire on sweat and truth. You built yours on lies and the hope that you could silence the people who worked for you. You underestimated me because you assumed that my silence was weakness. You thought because I didn't speak in your boardrooms, I wasn't listening."
I looked at Richard, who was staring at the documents with a dawning horror. The sheer volume of evidence was overwhelming; there was no way out, no loophole to exploit. The legal weight of the signatures and dates proved that I hadn't just protected my assets—I had secured the legal standing to strip them of their board seats, their voting rights, and their personal liability for the company's debts.
