Chapter 2 - The Promotion Ethan Would Not Explain
A nurse arrived seconds later and brought help.
Claire was returned to the bed, her oxygen replaced and her IV checked. The fall aggravated her surgical pain but caused no new serious injury.
Richard stayed.
Margaret did not.
He ordered her out of the room after she tried to call the entire confrontation “a family misunderstanding.”
Ethan remained near the window.
Claire refused to look at him.
Richard placed the CEO appointment document inside a clear hospital belongings folder.
“Where did this come from?”
Ethan said nothing.
Richard’s voice lowered.
“I asked you a question.”
“Mom gave it to me.”
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
Claire finally looked over.
Yesterday had been the day of her surgery.
Richard examined the document again.
Whitmore Surgical Systems was the company his father had started forty-eight years earlier. Richard still served as chairman and controlled the company’s founder-class voting shares.
Ethan had worked there for fourteen years.
For the last four, he had been executive vice president of operations.
Everybody knew he wanted the CEO position when Richard retired.
Claire had never considered ambition a flaw.
Until now.
Richard tapped the bottom of the document.
“My authorization isn’t here.”
Ethan swallowed.
“She said you’d already agreed.”
“I didn’t.”
The answer was immediate.
Claire watched Ethan’s expression.
It was not surprise.
It was dread.
“You knew there was something wrong with it,” she said.
Ethan looked at her.
“No.”
“You’re lying.”
“I thought Dad was going to sign.”
“When?”
He had no answer.
Richard asked Margaret’s whereabouts.
A nurse said she had left the VIP floor.
Claire almost laughed.
Margaret had been brave enough to shove a woman recovering from surgery but not brave enough to remain after Richard found the paper.
Then Claire remembered something.
Three nights earlier, Ethan had asked whether she had brought her company-share paperwork to the hospital.
At the time she thought it was an odd question.
Claire owned nine percent of Whitmore Surgical Systems.
The shares had come from her late father, Thomas Bennett, Richard’s original business partner.
They belonged to Claire independently of her marriage.
“What did your mother want me to sign?”
Ethan looked toward Richard.
That was enough.
Claire pushed herself slightly higher against the pillows.
“Tell me.”
Ethan’s voice was barely audible.
“A temporary voting proxy.”
Claire stared at him.
“For my shares?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Ethan rubbed both hands over his face.
“Mom said it was needed to finish the succession vote.”
Richard went completely still.
“What succession vote?”
Ethan looked at his father.
May you like
The question frightened him more than anything Margaret had done.
Because apparently Margaret had told Ethan about a vote Richard himself knew nothing about.
