Chapter 5: The Corporate Guillotine
Chapter 5: The Corporate Guillotine
The day of the board meeting was cold and gray, the sky mirroring the mood within the estate. Julian entered the boardroom, his head held high, while Mia waited in the lobby, watched by two of the estate’s head guards. The tension was palpable; the air was thick with the scent of old paper and betrayal.
As Julian took his seat, the Chairman slid a thick folder across the mahogany table. "We have reviewed your recent actions, Julian. You have breached the company’s code of conduct. You have brought disrepute to the Blackwood name."
"I have brought the truth to the Blackwood name," Julian countered, his voice steady. "The company has been laundering money through the very charities it pretends to support. I have the files. I have the signatures."
The room went silent. Eleanor’s face went white. She hadn't expected him to be so thorough, nor so willing to burn the house down to save the truth.
"You would destroy your own inheritance?" the Chairman whispered, incredulous.
"I am destroying the rot," Julian said. "And I am resigning. But I am not leaving empty-handed. I am taking the evidence to the authorities."
As he stepped out of the boardroom, he wasn't greeted by the luxury he had been born into. He was greeted by the realization that he was an outcast. He found Mia in the lobby, and as they walked toward the heavy oak doors, his mother’s voice stopped them.
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"If you walk out that door, you are no longer a Blackwood."
Julian stopped, turned, and looked at the woman who had raised him to be a puppet. "I stopped being a Blackwood the moment I realized you never taught me how to be a man."
