“I was terrified.”
“So was I.”
Emily looked surprised.
Arthur chuckled softly.
“Courage isn't the absence of fear, sweetheart. It's deciding that something matters more than your fear.”
Daniel approached them.
“Mr. Bennett, there's something I haven't told you.”
Arthur looked up.
“Go ahead.”
Daniel lowered his voice.
“Richard wasn't the only person involved in the family communications restrictions.”
Arthur's expression changed.
“Who else?”
Daniel looked toward the hallway.
“Your former personal assistant, Linda.”
Arthur sat back.
Linda had worked for him for seventeen years.
He had trusted her with everything.
“She handled my correspondence,” he said.
Daniel nodded.
“She was paid by a company controlled by Richard. There are records showing regular payments.”
Arthur stared at him.
“Why?”
Daniel hesitated.
“Because Linda had access to your private office, your telephone records, and your personal mail.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
He remembered Linda bringing him coffee every morning.
He remembered her sitting outside his office during Eleanor's final weeks.
He remembered trusting her to arrange his daughter's visits.
“Did she know Margaret was trying to contact me?”
Daniel nodded.
“She knew.”
Arthur slowly stood.
“Then she knew I was waiting.”
“Yes.”
“And she let me believe my daughter had abandoned me.”
Daniel looked down.
“I'm afraid so.”
Arthur walked toward the window.
The city stretched below him.
Thousands of people moved through the streets, unaware that the life of an old man was being rewritten inside a boardroom.
After a long silence, he spoke.
“I want to see Linda.”
Daniel nodded.
“I'll arrange it.”
The meeting resumed forty minutes later.
Richard returned with a different expression.
He no longer looked amused.
Instead, he appeared controlled and determined.
He sat at the head of the table.
“Let's be clear. This company cannot be governed by nostalgia. We need a decision today.”
Arthur took his seat.
“And we need the truth.”
Richard turned toward the board.
“I propose that we proceed with the Northstar agreement.”
Helen raised her hand.
“Before we vote, I would like an independent forensic audit.”
Several members nodded.
Richard shook his head.
“That would delay the transaction.”
“Then it will have to be delayed,” Helen replied.
Richard looked around the table.
He realized he was losing control.
He turned toward Arthur.
“You've come back to destroy everything I've built.”
Arthur looked at him quietly.
“No, Richard. I've come back to find out what you destroyed.”
Richard's jaw tightened.
“You were never there when the company needed you.”
Arthur nodded.
“Perhaps I wasn't. But I gave you every opportunity to succeed.”
“And I did succeed!”
“You succeeded by taking things that did not belong to you.”
Richard stood again.
“You have no idea what it took to keep this company alive!”
Arthur's voice softened.
“I know exactly what it took. I built it from nothing.”
Richard stared at him.
“You always believed everyone owed you loyalty.”
“No,” Arthur answered. “I believed loyalty was something people earned.”
Richard laughed bitterly.
“You think you were a perfect father? A perfect businessman? You think Eleanor would have been proud of you?”
The room went silent.
Arthur looked down.
Richard had found the one subject that could still hurt him.
“You want to talk about Eleanor?” Richard continued. “She knew you were destroying yourself. She begged you to slow down. You ignored her.”
Arthur closed his eyes.
“I know.”
“And Margaret left because she couldn't stand watching you turn into someone she didn't recognize.”
Arthur slowly looked up.
“I know that, too.”
Richard appeared surprised by the answer.
“But what you don't know,” Arthur continued, “is that I never stopped loving either of them.”
Richard looked away.
For the first time, his anger seemed to conceal something deeper.
At 4:15 p.m., the board voted to suspend the Northstar transaction pending an independent investigation.
The decision passed by nine votes to three.
Richard lost his authority to approve further asset transfers.
He remained chairman temporarily, but his control had been severely weakened.
Arthur did not celebrate.
He simply gathered his papers.
Outside the boardroom, reporters had already begun receiving information about the delayed acquisition.
Daniel approached Arthur.
“Sir, what happens now?”
Arthur looked at him.
“Now we find out how much damage has been done.”
He turned toward Emily.
“And then we try to repair what can still be repaired.”
Emily nodded.
She had forgotten about her job interview entirely.
But Arthur had not.
He looked at Daniel.
“Why was Emily invited here?”
Daniel checked his notes.
“The recruitment agency was hired by the executive office. The position was created three weeks ago.”
Arthur frowned.
“By whom?”
“Richard.”
Emily looked surprised.
“Richard hired me?”
Daniel nodded.
“He personally approved the shortlist.”
Arthur studied the businessman.
“Why?”
Daniel did not know.
But as they walked toward the elevator, Emily received an email.
The subject line read:
FINAL INTERVIEW DECISION — BENNETT HOLDINGS
She opened it.
The message was short.
The company had decided to postpone the recruitment process.
Emily looked disappointed.
Arthur noticed.
“What's wrong?”
“I didn't get the position.”
He took her phone and read the message.
Then he handed it back.
“Perhaps this is not the place where you were supposed to prove yourself.”
Emily looked at him.
“What do you mean?”
Arthur smiled.
“Sometimes a door closes because we have been standing in front of the wrong one.”
Emily nodded.
But she was beginning to suspect that the job interview had never been a normal recruitment process.