Chapter 4 - The Emergency Board MeetingAt 11:53, I entered Morales Biotech headquarters through the underground garage.
Normally I used the main entrance.
That day, Isabel insisted on discretion.
News of the restaurant incident had already leaked.
Someone had recorded the aftermath on a phone.
A gossip site posted a twenty-three-second clip showing security surrounding our table while Javier argued with police.
The headline read:
MADRID BUSINESS HEIR IN LUXURY RESTAURANT MELTDOWN.
Fortunately, my face was mostly obscured.
Unfortunately, Javier’s wasn’t.
Isabel showed me the article in the elevator.
“Any comments?”
“No.”
“Excellent.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I spent twelve years training clients not to talk to reporters. Silence gives me joy.”
The elevator opened on the executive floor.
My assistant, Sofia, was waiting.
“I canceled everything.”
“Thank you.”
“And the board is assembled.”
“How bad?”
She hesitated.
“Mateo has been asking questions.”
My CFO.
“Is he inside?”
“Yes.”
I handed Sofia my coat.
“Then let’s get answers.”
Seven directors sat around the long walnut table.
Some had served beside my father.
Others had joined after I became CEO.
Mateo sat at the far end.
He looked exhausted.
“Clara,” he said. “What is going on?”
I took my seat.
Daniel connected his laptop.
“This meeting is confidential,” I began. “Nothing discussed here leaves this room without authorization from counsel.”
Everyone looked toward Isabel.
She nodded.
Daniel began.
For ninety minutes, he walked the board through eighteen months of suspicious transactions.
The room changed gradually.
First came confusion.
Then concern.
Then anger.
Mateo barely spoke.
Finally, board member Rebecca Shaw turned toward him.
“These approvals came through your department.”
Mateo swallowed.
“Yes.”
“Explain.”
He looked at me.
“I believed Clara approved them.”
“Why?” I asked.
“The digital authorizations.”
Daniel displayed one.
My electronic signature appeared beneath an approval for €620,000.
It looked authentic.
Except one thing.
“I was in Boston that day.”
Mateo blinked.
“What?”
“June fourteenth. I was delivering the keynote at the diagnostics conference.”
Daniel nodded.
“Correct.”
“I didn’t have secure system access.”
Mateo looked at the screen.
His face drained.
“I received this directly from Javier.”
Silence.
“Why would my husband send you authorization for company funds?”
“He said you were having login issues while traveling.”
“And you accepted that?”
“He had brought me approvals from you before.”
My anger sharpened.
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
“Guess.”
“Maybe twelve.”
My hands went cold.
Twelve times.
Javier hadn’t hacked our systems in some brilliant technological scheme.
He had exploited trust.
Mine.
Mateo’s.
Everyone’s.
Because he was the CEO’s husband.
Daniel changed slides.
“The digital signatures appear to have been cloned using authenticated documents.”
Board member Hassan Malik leaned forward.
“Can we establish who created them?”
“We’re working on it.”
Mateo stood abruptly.
“I need to show you something.”
Isabel stopped him.
“Sit down first and tell us what.”
He slowly returned to his chair.
“Three months ago, Javier asked me about the company’s short-term credit facilities.”
I stared at him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He said you were considering expanding the Valencia operation and wanted numbers before discussing it with the board.”
The Valencia property.
My stomach tightened.
“What did you give him?”
“General information.”
“Passwords?”
“No.”
“Documents?”
He hesitated.
“Mateo.”
“A summary of available collateral.”
Rebecca whispered something under her breath.
I closed my eyes for one second.
Not because I was weak.
Because if I spoke immediately, I might say something unforgivable.
When I opened them again, I looked directly at the man who had known me since university.
“You should have called me.”
“I know.”
“You should have asked.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you?”
His answer came quietly.
“Because he was your husband.”
There it was again.
The most dangerous credential Javier possessed.
Not a password.
Not a title.
Marriage.
He had turned proximity to me into authority.
The board voted unanimously to suspend Mateo pending investigation.
He accepted it without protest.
As security escorted him from the building, he stopped beside me.
“I’m sorry.”
I believed him.
That didn’t make the damage disappear.
At 2:30, we broke for ten minutes.
Sofia entered carrying sandwiches nobody touched.
My phone contained thirty-seven missed calls.
Most from Javier.
Six from Elena.
Four unknown numbers.
Then one message from Javier:
Stop this now. You have no idea what you’re doing.
Another:
You’re destroying everything your father built.
That one nearly made me throw the phone.
My father had built Morales Biotech from a six-person laboratory into a company employing more than two thousand people.
Javier had stolen from it.
Yet somehow I was destroying my father’s legacy by stopping him.
I typed a response.
My lawyer will communicate with you.
Isabel saw.
“Perfect.”
“That was painful.”
“Growth usually is.”
The board reconvened.
By four, emergency controls were implemented.
Dual authorization for major payments.
External forensic review.
Suspension of all questionable vendors.
Banks notified.
Access revoked for several outside consultants.
Then Sofia entered again.
Her face was pale.
“Clara.”
“What?”
“There are reporters downstairs.”
Isabel swore quietly.
“How many?”
“Maybe twenty.”
“Already?”
Sofia handed me her phone.
An article filled the screen.
MORALES BIOTECH INVESTIGATES POSSIBLE INTERNAL FRAUD.
Someone had leaked it.
And the story included a quote.
A source close to the Rivas family claims CEO Clara Morales has become “emotionally unstable” following marital difficulties.
I read it twice.
Then a third time.
Emotionally unstable.
Javier’s counterattack had begun.
Rebecca leaned over my shoulder.
“That bastard.”
Isabel was already typing.
“Do not respond.”
“They’re attacking my competence.”
“Which means they’re afraid of the financial evidence.”
Daniel looked up from his computer.
“She’s right.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
I answered against Isabel’s silent objection.
“Hello?”
A man spoke.
“Señora Morales?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Eduardo Peña. I believe we should meet.”
“Why?”
“I worked for your husband.”
My attention sharpened.
“In what capacity?”
“Driving. Deliveries. Sometimes other things.”
“What things?”
Silence.
Then:
“Things I shouldn’t have done.”
I stood.
“Where are you?”
“Not over the phone.”
“Why contact me?”
“Because Mr. Rivas stopped paying me three months ago.”
That sounded less like morality than revenge, but I didn’t care.
“What do you know?”
He hesitated.
Then said six words that changed the investigation.
“I know where he keeps copies.”
“Copies of what?”
“Everything.”
Isabel was watching me now.
“Where?”
“I’ll tell you in person.”
“Tonight?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because they’re watching your building.”
My eyes moved automatically toward the conference-room windows.
Madrid stretched below us.
“Who is they?”
Eduardo whispered:
“The people your husband owes money.”
The call disconnected.
I stared at the phone.
Isabel stood.
“What happened?”
I repeated what he said.
Daniel frowned.
“Owes money to whom?”
I didn’t know.
May you like
But suddenly theft no longer looked like the whole story.
It looked like the beginning.
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