There was disbelief in her voice.
And something else.
Embarrassment.
I set my cardboard box on the conference table.
“Good morning.”
Grant pointed at me.
“You’re Walter Holloway’s granddaughter?”
“I was this morning too.”
One of the board members coughed into his hand to hide a laugh.
Grant turned toward Rebecca.
“You knew?”
“Of course I knew.”
“Then why didn’t you tell me?”
Rebecca stared at him.
“Why would I assume you were firing her without legal review?”
That landed hard.
Thomas slid a thick document across the table.
“Grant, when Walter Holloway took the company public, the founding family retained thirty-four percent of voting control through a stewardship trust.”
“I know the family owns shares.”
“Apparently, you don’t know enough.”
Thomas opened the document.
“The trust requires an active Holloway family steward inside the company whenever the family’s ownership remains above twenty-five percent.”
Grant said nothing.
Thomas continued.
“That steward has oversight rights concerning workforce protections, vendor integrity, executive conflicts of interest, and extraordinary restructuring.”
Grant finally looked at me.
I pulled out a chair and sat down.
He remained standing.
Thomas tapped the document.
“Evelyn is the current steward.”
Grant’s face went blank.
Board member Malcolm Reed leaned forward.
“So he fired the person assigned to supervise executive conflicts of interest?”
“Yes.”
“And because he did it unilaterally?”
Thomas nodded.
“Every restructuring action taken under his authority during the last ninety days is now automatically subject to review.”
Grant laughed sharply.
“You cannot be serious.”
Diane Walsh spoke for the first time.
“I administer the trust, Mr. Mercer. I assure you, we are.”
Grant paced toward the window.
“This is some ancient family loophole.”
“No,” I said. “It’s governance.”
He spun toward me.
“You could have told me.”
“I could have.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“Because I wanted to know whether you thought ordinary employees deserved proper process.”
The room became quiet.
Grant stared at me.
I continued.
“If I had said, ‘Be careful, my grandfather founded the company,’ you would have treated me differently.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Is it?”
I gestured toward the cardboard box.
“You had strangers pack my belongings before you even spoke to me.”
His face reddened.
“That was HR procedure.”
The HR director, sitting near the far wall, suddenly spoke.
“No, it wasn’t.”
Grant looked toward him.
The man swallowed.
