“Save your breath, Julian,” Claire said. Her voice wasn’t loud, but it carried a strange, heavy authority that instantly cut through the brothers’ screaming like a scalpel.
Julian stopped, his phone halfway to his ear, staring at her as if she were a ghost.
“Abraham,” Claire said, looking at the old lawyer. “As the sixty percent majority shareholder, do I have the immediate authority to remove the executive board of Morgan Bancorp?”
“You have absolute authority, Miss Morgan,” Vance smiled. “Effective the moment of your father’s death certification, which was registered four hours ago.”
“Good,” Claire said softly. She walked over to the grand mahogany desk, looking down at her two brothers. “Julian, your personal company accounts are frozen as of this second. Christian, the compliance team I authorized Abraham to hire last week is currently locking down your hedge fund’s access to our secondary clearing houses. You have exactly thirty minutes to clear your desks in the downtown office before corporate security escorts you to the pavement.”
“You can’t do this, Claire,” Christian hissed, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and sheer, bottomless panic. “You’re a teacher. You don’t know anything about private equity! You’ll destroy the bank!”
“I know how to deal with spoiled children who don’t know how to share, Christian,” Claire whispered, her green eyes flashing with a cold, absolute satisfaction. “I’ve been doing it for five years for thirty thousand dollars a year. Doing it for seven billion is going to be a pleasure.”
She turned her back on her family, walking out of the library and into the crisp, cold air of the Lake Forest morning. The rain had stopped, the winter sun reflecting off the snow like a field of diamonds, and for the first time in her entire life, the Morgan estate didn’t feel like a prison. It felt like a classroom, and the first lesson had just begun.
