Chapter 32: Firing A Corrupt Board Member

When Chloe and I walked through the double glass doors of Zenith’s headquarters, I expected to see a newly organized corporate machine running like clockwork.

Instead, it was utter chaos.

Phones were ringing off the hook, stacks of unread contracts piled up on empty desks, and the few newly hired middle managers looked completely lost. At the center of the storm was Tiana—looking surprisingly bright and composed, but clearly still shouldering every single operational burden herself. She was practically running the entire floor manually.

I walked straight into her corner office, Chloe right beside me carrying her legal briefcase.

"Tiana," I said, catching her attention as she shuffled through a massive stack of financial documents. "What’s going on out there? I thought we agreed you were delegating the workload."

Tiana looked up, giving me a soft, tired smile. "I tried. But the minor equity shareholders on our board are blocking every single executive hire I put forward. They’re deliberately bottlenecking our operations."

Chloe’s eyes narrowed as she pulled up Zenith’s corporate charter on her tablet, skimming through the bylaws with practiced precision. Within thirty seconds, her expression turned dead serious.

"It’s worse than bottlenecking," Chloe said, turning the screen toward me. "Look at this structure. The original investment group set up a loop-hole voting system. If operational performance drops or stalls for two consecutive quarters, the board holds the right to vote out the primary owner and force a buyout of her remaining shares for pennies on the dollar."

I stared at the screen, then back at Tiana. "They’re trying to freeze the company on purpose so they can push you out and take the whole house for themselves once May’s line drops."

"They think because Zenith’s valuation exploded after our announcement, they can squeeze me out and control the major cut," Tiana said quietly. Yet, despite the threat of losing her own creation, there was a strange, calm brightness in her eyes. "They didn’t account for who stood behind me."

Chloe snapped her legal folder shut with a sharp clack.

"They structured this assuming Tiana wouldn’t have top-tier legal representation or a heavy capital partner to fight back," Chloe smirked, adjusting her jacket. "With my 4.0 legal background and your 50% controlling equity stake, their little voting coup is dead on arrival. I can rewrite the corporate board structure by end of day."

My system interface flickered subtly in the corner of my vision, calculating the upcoming structural shift:

[ Target Status: Tiana — Operational Strain Detected ]

[ System Glow-Up Condition: Restructure Board & Eliminate Operational Bottleneck ]

[ Locked Cashback: $35,000,000 — Pending Corporate Resolution ]

I looked at the chaos outside the glass office, then back at Tiana. I wanted to march into that boardroom and personally crush every minority shareholder sitting around the table, but that wouldn’t fix the core issue. Zenith was her company, her vision, and her legacy.

A translucent system overlay flickered beside her head:

[ Target: Tiana ]

[ Management Potential: 9.5 / 10 ]

[ Current Bottleneck: Suppressed Leadership & Reluctance to Exercise Absolute Authority ]

[ Glow-Up Progress: Blocked until Target establishes total dominance over Zenith’s board ]

Her stats proved she was born to run an elite international brand, but she was being far too nice to snake executives who were actively plotting her downfall. If she didn’t stand up right now and claim what was hers, she would never grow into the leader Zenith needed—and that massive cashback reward would stay locked in the vault forever.

"I could go in there and tear them apart for you, Tiana," I said, leaning over her desk, my voice calm but laced with absolute certainty. "But this is your empire. You built Zenith from a basement brand into a company that has the whole world watching. You have world-class potential as an executive, but you’re letting leeching shareholders walk all over you because you’re trying to play fair."

Tiana swallowed hard, her eyes locking onto mine as my words hit home.

"Chloe," I turned to my head legal counsel. "Draft the paperwork. Complete board restructuring, immediate termination of their voting rights, and a forced buyback based on their breach of fiduciary duty."

"Already on it," Chloe smiled, her fingers flying across her tablet as she finalized the airtight legal document. "They won’t have a single leg to stand on."

I slid the tablet straight toward Tiana.

"Chloe gave you the loaded gun," I told her, looking her dead in the eye. "Now you have to walk into that room, pull the trigger, and own what you started. No more holding back. Show them who owns Zenith."

Tiana looked at the tablet, taking a deep, steadying breath. The doubt in her eyes vanished, replaced by a cold, sharp determination. She straightened her posture, picked up the tablet, and looked at me with a fierce smile.

"Let’s go fire a board," she said.

The boardroom doors swung open, revealing the minority shareholders sitting around the massive oak table. At the head sat Yaga—a bitter, older investor who had been running his mouth for weeks, convinced he could corner Tiana and strip Zenith right out of her hands.

Tiana walked in with absolute poise. She didn’t hesitate, taking the head of the table while Chloe and I stood directly behind her.

"This emergency session is now in order," Tiana announced, her voice carrying a sharp, icy clarity that caught every single investor off guard. She didn’t read from a script or fumble her words; she laid out their deliberate sabotage of Zenith’s supply chain line by line, exposing every single bottleneck they had created to stall her operations.

"Because of your intentional breach of fiduciary duty," Tiana continued, looking Yaga dead in the eye, "I am exercising my right as primary owner to strip this board of its voting authority and terminate your positions immediately."

The room erupted into an instant uproar. Yaga slammed his fist onto the table, his face flushing deep red as he glared up at her.

"You arrogant little girl!" Yaga barked, his voice filled with old grudges and arrogance. "You can’t fire us! This is completely impossible! I have shares in this company! I put real money into Zenith when you were nothing, and you think you can just march in here and send me away?!"

Before he could continue his rant, Chloe stepped forward, opening her leather portfolio with a sharp click. She slid a thick stack of printed legal documents straight across the polished table, landing them right in front of Yaga.

"Actually, Mr. Yaga, she can," Chloe said smoothly, her legal authority shining through. "These documents detail the exact voting pool manipulation and illegal stalling tactics you and your associates used. Under corporate law, this constitutes gross misconduct. Your shares are subject to an immediate forced buyback at initial valuation, effectively stripping your voting rights as of two minutes ago."

The other board members looked at the evidence sitting on the table, their faces turning completely pale. Guilt washed over the room as they realized Chloe had caught them red-handed with zero room to maneuver.

Yet Yaga refused to yield. He pushed his chair back, standing up and pointing an trembling finger at Tiana. "I don’t care what little legal paper you drafted! You can’t just send me out on the street! I put my money in here, and you owe me!"

That was my cue.

I took a slow step forward from behind Tiana, my shadow falling right over Yaga’s side of the table. I kept my expression completely blank, but the cold intensity in my eyes instantly cut through his shouting.

"You’re confused, Yaga," I said, my voice low and heavy enough to freeze the entire room. "You didn’t invest in Zenith to build it. You invested to steal it. And now, you’re done."

"Ten seconds, Yaga," I said, leaning over the table, my voice dropping into an icy, unyielding register. "You sign the forced buyback right now and take the pennies we’re offering for your shares, or Chloe files these documents with the federal prosecutor before you even reach the elevator. Corporate sabotage, fraud, and breach of fiduciary duty. You won’t just be out of Zenith—you’ll be facing hard time."

I reached into my jacket, pulled out the restructured buyback agreement, and tossed it flat against the mahogany table right in front of him.

Buying out his remaining equity stake was literal pocket change to me. With millions sitting liquid in my account, sweeping his shares off the board didn’t even make a dent in my capital, but it effectively cut his throat in this company forever.

Yaga looked down at the paper, his hands trembling violently. He glanced back up at me, then at Chloe, who was already holding her phone with the prosecutor’s direct line pulled up on the screen, ready to tap call.

The old man’s arrogant facade completely collapsed. The color drained from his face, and his chest heaved as panic finally set in. He realized he had zero leverage, zero allies left in the room, and an absolute brick wall standing in front of him.

Without saying another word, his shaky fingers snatched up a pen. He scrawled his signature across the bottom of the buyout document, slammed the pen down, and grabbed his coat with sheer humiliation burning in his eyes.

"Get out of my building," Tiana commanded, her voice ringing with absolute authority as security stepped into the doorway to escort him and the rest of the disgraced board off the premises.