Chapter 4 - The Boardroom AmbushThe headquarters of Montgomery Tech occupied the top three floors of a sleek, blue-glass skyscraper in Hudson Yards. It was a monument to Preston’s vanity, clad in brushed steel and white Italian marble.
At 10:00 AM, the boardroom was filled with the company's heavy hitters—nine board members who controlled the flow of billions, representing some of the most powerful venture capital firms in the country. At the head of the table sat Preston, looking immaculate in a charcoal-grey Tom Ford suit. There was no sign of the rage from two nights ago. He was laughing at a joke made by one of his primary investors, completely in his element.
Sitting quietly in the back corner of the room, ostensibly taking notes, was Natasha Coleman. She wore a tailored cream dress, her perfect hair catching the light of the morning sun. Her eyes occasionally locked with Preston's, a subtle, private understanding passing between them.
The heavy glass doors of the boardroom swung open.
Every head turned.
I walked in. I wore a tailored midnight-blue suit that I had purchased that morning—sharp, structured, and commanding. I had left my hair down to cover the small, neat bandage near my temple, but my posture was entirely different from the quiet, accommodating woman they had occasionally seen sitting at the edge of charity galas. Behind me walked Belle Stevens, carrying a sleek leather briefcase, and Marcus Vance.
Preston’s smile died instantly. His eyes flared with a mixture of disbelief and immediate embarrassment as the board members began to whisper.
"Simone?" Preston said, his voice dropping into a tight, warning growl. He stood up, smoothing his jacket, trying to maintain his composure. "What are you doing here? This is a private, closed-door quarterly board meeting. If you need to speak with me, you can wait in my office."
"I'm not here to speak with you, Preston," I said, my voice carrying clearly across the silent room. "I’m here to speak with the board."
I didn't wait for his permission. I walked to the opposite end of the mahogany table, directly facing him. Belle and Marcus stood on either side of me like sentinels.
"Security!" Preston barked, slamming his hand onto the table. "Get security up here right now! My wife is having a personal crisis and needs to be escorted from the building."
"Actually, Mr. Montgomery," Belle Stevens spoke up, her voice ringing with the razor-sharp authority of a veteran litigator, "if your security touches Mrs. Harris, we will immediately file charges of physical assault, building on the domestic violence report we have already initiated with the NYPD. Furthermore, removing her would constitute a major civil violation. Simone Harris is not here as your wife. She is here as the majority shareholder and sole managing director of Aegis Holdings."
The name Aegis Holdings hit the room like a physical blow.
Two of the older board members, who had been with the company since its inception, sat up straight. The casual, bored expressions on their faces vanished.
"Aegis?" one of them, Arthur Pendelton, asked, looking between me and Preston. "Preston, what is she talking about? Aegis is the Delaware entity that holds the proprietary software licensing. We just approved the eighty-five million dollar quarterly renewal."
"It's a misunderstanding," Preston said, a thin sheen of sweat suddenly appearing on his forehead. He looked at me, his eyes practically pleading, though his jaw remained clenched in anger. "Simone, stop this childish game. Whatever you think you’re doing, you’re embarrassing yourself. Let’s go home and talk."
"The time for talking ended when you threw a crystal plate at my head, Preston," I said calmly. I reached up and gently moved my hair back, revealing the neat bandage and the dark purple bruise blooming across my temple.
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Gasps rippled through the room. Natasha Coleman’s eyes went wide, and she instinctively shrank back into her chair.
"This is Marcus Vance, a forensic accountant," I continued, gesturing to Marcus, who stepped forward and opened his laptop, syncing it to the boardroom's massive projection screen. "And this is the reality of Montgomery Tech's financial dependency."
