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We’ve spent the last seventy-two hours lobbying these people. We’ve shown them all the evidence and brought in Agent Mercer to speak to them. We’ve shown them the DOJ’s preliminary immunity deal for Jesse and the rest of the company, provided I am the one at the helm.
Moura clears her throat. “On the motion to remove Julian King and appoint Sebastian King—”
She pauses as she looks up. Dad is actually smiling. He thinks he’s won. He thinks he’s untouchable.
“Seven in favor. Five against. The motion carries.”
Heavy silence fills the room.
Dad’s smile morphs. He looks at Evelyn. “Seven? You gave them the seventh vote?”
Evelyn meets his gaze, unflinching. “The company has to survive, Julian. You didn't leave us a choice.”
Dad stands up so abruptly, the guard behind him jumps out of the way. The last crack in his mask falls away and shatters, revealing the monster hiding beneath.
“You think you can do this?” he bellows, his voice echoing around the room. “You think you can take what I built and hand it to this traitor?” He points to me. “You’re a pack of jackals! You’re nothing without my vision! Nothing!”
He turns his fury on me. He rounds the table, and for a moment, I think he’s going to strike me. Two other security guards, men who used to take his coat and open his doors, step forward, their hands hovering near their belts.
“You,” Dad spits, his eyes full of rage and loathing. “You don’t have what it takes to run this company. You’ll be begging me for help in a few months, and if you think I’m going to assist you in any way, you can go fuck yourself.”
“The board didn't put me here to be you.” I stand to meet his gaze, towering over him by a few inches. “They put me here to fix what you broke.”
“I broke nothing! I made us gods!” He’s screaming now, the veins in his neck bulging, the polished patriarch replaced by a cornered animal. “I am a King, and you are nothing. You don’t deserve our name or our company. You’re going to run this place into the ground, and I’ll laugh when you have nothing left.”
“Mr. King,” one of the guards steps closer. “You’ve been stripped of your security clearance. I have to ask you to leave the building.”
Dad looks at the guard, then back at me. I can see the moment he realizes that he’s truly lost everything, and he isn’t getting it back.
“Fine,” he sneers, adjusting his cuffs. “Know that I’ll enjoy watching everything crash down around you, Sebastian. If you think this new honesty of yours will win you friends, you’re going to have quite the wake-up call. And I can’t wait to see you fall.”
He storms out, guard behind him, slamming the doors so hard the glass rattles. The sound of his rant continues down the hall, fading only when he gets on the elevator.
The room is still. Evelyn looks at me, as calm and collected as if nothing at all had happened. “Congratulations, Sebastian.” She closes her leather folder with a snap and stands. “We’ll be watching. I hope you can make this work.”
She strides toward the door, then stops and turns slightly, her steely gaze meeting mine. “I know you will.”
She’s gone before I can say anything.
The lobby is a sea of camera lenses and blinding LED lights. The murmur of the pack of reporters creates a vibrating buzz.
They are here because they smell blood in the water, and they want a piece of the story. They want to see me fall, see me fail.
When I reach the podium, the noise dies down. But instead of looking at the cameras that are flashing in my face, my eyes find the corner where Isabella is standing. There was no time to talk between the end of the board meeting and the beginning of the press conference.
I expected her to disappear, but she’s here. She waited, and she’s watching me. Even if our connection is now tenuous, at best, she’s the anchor I need to open the door and walk through to the new era I’m going to create.
“I am Sebastian King.” The mic amplifies my voice across the wide space. “But you already know that. What you don’t know is that, as of just half an hour ago, I am the new president and CEO of the King Corporation, which I will lead into the future.”
I let my eyes wander across the faces of the reporters before I speak again.
“But before we can talk about the future, we have to talk about the past. I will not have our future built on a foundation of lies and lack of accountability.”
A ripple of murmured surprise goes through the crowd.
“For the past several weeks, you have seen headlines about data leaks and corporate espionage. Those headlines are true. My father, Julian King, used this company as a shield for personal crimes and a weapon against anyone who threatened his power, including me. He framed me for the leak and for bribing a DOJ official. He has been arrested for both, and the evidence has proven me innocent.”
The flashes from the cameras become a pulsing strobe light.
