Chapter 10 - The Storm on the Horizon|
We spent the next forty-eight hours wrapped in a world that belonged only to us.
We walked along the foggy shores of Lake Geneva, cooked simple dinners in the wood-paneled kitchen, and sat by the crackling fire long into the night, talking about everything we had kept hidden for three years.
For the first time since I met her, Alina laughed—a rich, melodic sound that filled the heavy silence of my life with bright, vibrant light.
I discovered that she loved old jazz records, that she was terrified of thunderstorms, and that she had kept every single handwritten note I had ever left on the kitchen counter during my business trips.
On the third evening, as snow began to fall softly over the lake, my private satellite phone chimed on the kitchen counter.
It was Henry Sterling—my head of global legal affairs.
I picked it up, keeping my arm wrapped around Alina as she rested her head against my chest on the sofa.
"Talk to me, Henry," I said softly.
"Dante," Henry’s voice came through, sharp and tense. "Marcus didn't go quietly. He just held a press conference in downtown Chicago with your board members."
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I went rigid, my eyes narrowing. "What did he say?"
"He’s claiming that you manipulated Moretti Global stock options to fund a private bailout for Vance Manufacturing," Henry reported grimly. "The board is calling an emergency vote of no confidence for ten o'clock tomorrow morning. If you don't show up with voting majority, they're stripping you of the CEO position."
