Chapter 3 - THE OWNER IN THE BLUE UNIFORM
Vanessa refused to leave quietly.
She demanded Peter’s boss.
Peter looked at Andrea.
Vanessa noticed.
“What?”
Andrea removed her wine-soaked apron.
Set it carefully on the empty chair.
Then said:
“You’re looking at her.”
Madison blinked.
Ashley stopped breathing.
Vanessa stared.
“No.”
Andrea reached into the small service-station drawer behind her and took out the management key card.
Peter said:
“Andrea Sullivan is Bellamy House’s largest individual shareholder.”
The room shifted.
Vanessa’s face did not collapse.
Not yet.
She was too intelligent for that.
Instead, she smiled.
“Forty percent.”
Andrea went still.
Vanessa knew the number.
“Interesting,” Andrea said.
Vanessa folded her arms.
“Not majority control.”
“No.”
“And maybe not forty percent for long.”
There it was.
Andrea glanced toward the envelope.
“Who invited you to the shareholder meeting?”
Vanessa smiled.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
Andrea looked at Peter.
He looked alarmed.
There was no scheduled special meeting on Andrea’s calendar.
Then Vanessa picked up her handbag.
“You should change clothes.”
She looked Andrea up and down.
“You have a board meeting tomorrow.”
Andrea’s face hardened.
“Get out.”
Vanessa smiled.
“Gladly.”
Madison and Ashley followed.
But before leaving, Vanessa turned.
“Oh, and Andrea?”
Andrea waited.
“My father never sold Bellamy House voluntarily.”
Then she left.
The restaurant remained silent for several seconds.
Andrea turned to the staff.
“Back to work.”
Mia stared.
“She poured wine on your head.”
“And?”
“And I want to kill her.”
“No.”
“Fine. Professionally inconvenience her.”
Andrea almost smiled.
“Reset twelve.”
The staff moved.
That was why they were loyal.
Not because Andrea owned shares.
Because she never asked them to do work she would not do herself.
Thirty minutes later, Andrea sat in the office wearing Peter’s spare white shirt and a kitchen jacket.
She called her attorney.
Naomi Ellis answered.
“What happened?”
Andrea described the envelope.
Naomi went quiet.
“There is no authorized special shareholder meeting tomorrow.”
“Then why does Vanessa have notice?”
“Send me a photo if security caught it.”
They checked cameras.
It had.
Naomi enlarged the envelope.
Bellamy Holdings.
Special shareholder meeting.
9:00 a.m.
Private conference room.
Signature line:
Carter Vale Capital.
The outside investment partnership that owned thirty percent.
Andrea stared.
“Carter Vale called a meeting without me?”
“They can request one.”
“Can they hold one?”
“Not validly without notice to all voting shareholders.”
“Then why Vanessa?”
Naomi paused.
“Maybe because she is buying them.”
Andrea’s stomach tightened.
Carter Vale’s thirty percent had transfer restrictions.
Existing shareholders had right of first refusal.
Andrea should have received notice.
She had not.
Then Naomi searched filings.
A new entity had been formed three weeks earlier.
Monroe Hospitality Recovery LLC.
Manager:
Vanessa Monroe.
Purpose:
restaurant investment acquisition.
Andrea leaned back.
Vanessa did not come to Bellamy House to humiliate a waitress.
She came to humiliate the woman standing between her and ownership.
Then Peter knocked.
“There’s something else.”
He placed an old personnel file on the desk.
Charles Monroe’s name appeared inside.
Andrea frowned.
“What is this?”
Peter looked uncomfortable.
“Your grandfather fired someone because of Charles.”
“Who?”
Peter opened the file.
Employee:
Julia Monroe.
Vanessa’s mother.
Andrea stared.
Termination date:
Two days after Charles Monroe lost his final lawsuit against Arthur Sullivan.
Reason:
May you like
Theft.
Vanessa’s revenge was not only about money.
