"Your personal belongings have already been packed into three boxes and placed in the lobby," Eva said, her tone absolute. "Security will escort you from the premises. If you set foot on any Johnson Global property anywhere in the world after midnight, you will be arrested for trespass."
Miller stared down at the signed termination paper. The blood had completely drained from his face, leaving him looking hollow, old, and defeated. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out.
"Maître Laurent," Eva added, turning her gaze to Miller’s lawyer. "I suggest you advise your client to prepare his defense for the federal prosecutors. The criminal dossier will be delivered to the Palais de Justice at eight o'clock tomorrow morning."
Two tall, silent security officers stepped into the boardroom, standing behind Miller’s chair.
Slowly, painfully, Richard Miller rose from his seat. He did not look at Eva, nor did he look at the board members he had worked with for two decades. With his shoulders stooped and his head bowed, he walked slowly out of the room, his footsteps echoing faintly down the long marble corridor until the double doors swung shut behind him.
Eva turned back to the remaining board members, her posture unyielding.
"Now, gentlemen," she said, pulling a new set of folders from her briefcase. "Let us talk about how we rebuild this company."
Chapter 9: The Press Conference
The grand ballroom of the InterContinental Paris Le Grand was packed to capacity.
Over three hundred journalists representing every major international news organization—from The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times to Le Monde, BBC, and Bloomberg—sat packed into rows of gilded chairs. A forest of television cameras, telephoto lenses, and boom microphones occupied the raised platform at the back of the room. The air was electric with anticipation, hummed through by the continuous chatter of reporters broadcasting live in a dozen different languages.
The news of Richard Miller’s dramatic firing, the collapse of AeroElite Staffing, and the midnight purge of Johnson Global’s European executive board had broken four hours earlier, sending shockwaves through the global financial markets. Johnson Global stock had initially dipped three percent in pre-market trading, but as rumors spread of an unprecedented corporate overhaul led personally by the elusive heiress Eva Johnson, the world was waiting to see who was holding the reins.
At precisely 10:00 AM, the side doors opened.
Eva Johnson walked onto the stage.
She was dressed in a pristine, tailored navy blue double-breasted suit, her dark hair pulled back into a sleek, elegant chignon. She carried no notes, no tablet, and no script. As she stepped up to the acrylic podium, the room erupted into a deafening storm of camera flashes and shutter clicks that illuminated the stage like lightning.
Eva stood quietly, waiting for the flashing lights to subside. She did not smile; she did not look nervous. Her posture was majestic, her expression calm, serene, and utterly in control.
When the room finally settled into an expectant hush, she adjusted the microphone and spoke into the silence.
"Good morning, ladies and gentlemen," Eva began. Her voice, amplified by the hotel sound system, was rich, clear, and carried a natural cadence of undeniable authority. "For the past seven decades, the name Johnson Global has been synonymous with scale, efficiency, and global reach. We move people, goods, and capital across six continents. But in our pursuit of size, we allowed something vital to rot at the foundation of our institution."
She paused, her eyes scanning the sea of journalists.
"Last night, I personally initiated a comprehensive forensic audit of our European transport and aviation operations," she continued. "That audit revealed a systemic failure of corporate oversight. It exposed an executive culture that prioritized short-term extraction over long-term integrity, that allowed vendor corruption to drain our resources, and—worst of all—that treated our workers and our passengers not as human beings deserving of dignity, but as line items on an expense sheet."
A wave of quiet murmuring rippled through the press corps. It was vanishingly rare for a Fortune 500 CEO to publicly acknowledge structural failure with such blunt, unvarnished honesty.
"Effective as of midnight last night," Eva announced, her voice firm, "the senior management responsible for these breaches has been severed from this firm. Criminal complaints have been filed with French authorities regarding financial malfeasance. But firing corrupt individuals is merely a reaction. Today, I am announcing a fundamental, permanent transformation of how Johnson Global operates."
She stepped out from behind the podium, walking slowly toward the front edge of the stage, closer to the reporters.
"First: We are completely dissolving the third-party staffing model across all Johnson Global transportation subsidiaries," Eva declared. "Every single cabin crew member, ground handler, driver, and service worker currently operating under subcontracting arrangements will be offered direct, permanent employment contracts with Johnson Global, complete with full medical benefits, fair living wages, and robust legal protections."
The room stirred instantly. A senior correspondent from Le Figaro quickly scribbled in his notebook while shaking his head in disbelief.
"Second," Eva continued, holding up a second finger, "we are instituting the Passenger and Employee Dignity Charter. Under this charter, any employee—regardless of rank—who experiences or witnesses classist, racist, sexist, or abusive behavior within our network is legally empowered to halt operations immediately without fear of retaliation. We are building an internal reporting structure that routes directly to an independent, external ethics ombudsman."