Chapter 4 - THE FIRST DECISION THAT COST HER SOMETHING
Monday morning, Mara hired her own attorney.
Not Hudson Forge’s attorney.
Hers.
Rebecca Lowell specialized in closely held businesses and marital property disputes.
She listened without interrupting.
Then she separated three issues Mara had been mixing together.
The assault.
The marriage.
The company.
“They interact,” Rebecca said. “But they are not the same problem.”
Mara nodded.
“What do I do about the vote?”
“First we determine what authority Ivan actually had.”
Rebecca requested corporate records through proper shareholder channels.
She also instructed Mara not to access systems she had no business right to enter simply because she suspected wrongdoing.
Mara hated that advice.
It was also correct.
Her ownership gave her rights.
It did not make every company file hers to secretly search.
Then Rebecca asked:
“Do you intend to return home?”
Mara looked at her bandaged hand.
“No.”
That answer created immediate practical consequences.
Mara and Ivan jointly owned their Scarsdale house.
Most of Mara’s clothes were there.
Her passport.
Jewelry.
Personal records.
Rebecca helped arrange a time for Mara to collect essentials with Leah present.
Ivan stayed at Hudson Forge.
Cynthia waited in the foyer.
“You called a lawyer.”
“Yes.”
“You’re turning a marriage problem into a corporate crisis.”
Mara picked up a suitcase.
“Ivan did that when he used expired authority to vote my shares.”
Cynthia’s expression changed.
“You’ve been talking to Peter.”
“He called me.”
“You have no idea what Bellweather means to the business.”
“Then why didn’t anyone ask me?”
Cynthia stepped closer.
“Because you always say no when you don’t understand something.”
Mara stopped packing.
“Name one time.”
“What?”
“One time I voted no.”
Cynthia opened her mouth.
Then closed it.
Mara smiled without warmth.
“I couldn’t say no. Ivan was voting my shares.”
“That was what you agreed.”
“Until the proxy expired.”
Cynthia went pale.
There.
Again.
Fear.
Not confusion.
Mara turned.
“You knew it expired.”
Cynthia looked away.
Mara’s stomach tightened.
“Mom knew too?”
Ivan’s voice came from the doorway.
He had come home early.
Mara looked at him.
“You told her.”
Ivan ignored the question.
“You’re about to kill an acquisition that keeps eighty people employed.”
“Hudson Forge has forty-eight.”
“Bellweather has thirty-one.”
“So ask me to approve it.”
Ivan’s jaw tightened.
Mara understood.
He could have asked.
May you like
He had chosen not to.
Because the transaction contained something he did not want his actual majority shareholder examining before it closed.
