Chapter 9 - The Boardroom Reversal
Monday morning arrived with a clear, crisp blue sky.
At 9:30 AM, I pulled my Mercedes into the executive parking deck of Crestview Financial Group in downtown Atlanta. Crestview was one of the largest corporate restructuring consultancies in the region—and until four months ago, Scott’s former employer.
What Scott had forgotten—or perhaps chosen to ignore in his delusional pride—was that my tech logistics firm, *Vance Dynamics*, provided the enterprise cloud infrastructure that Crestview used to service every single one of their Fortune 500 corporate clients.
I wasn't just a former employee's wife. I was their fourth-largest technology vendor.
I took the private elevator to the thirty-second floor. The receptionist, a pleasant woman named Sarah who had known me for years, stood up immediately.
"Good morning, Ms. Vance. Mr. Henderson is expecting you in Conference Room A."
"Thank you, Sarah."
I walked down the glass-walled corridor. Inside the conference room sat David Henderson, the senior managing partner of Crestview, looking over a folder of paperwork with a grave expression.
"Allison," David said, standing up and shaking my hand firmly. "Thank you for coming in on such short notice. When Arthur called me over the weekend regarding Scott’s recent activities... I was horrified."
"Did you review the documents?" I asked, taking a seat opposite him.
"I did," David sighed, leaning back in his leather chair. "When we let Scott go in November, we offered him a standard non-disparagement severance package. We knew his performance had cratered, but we wanted to spare him embarrassment because of our corporate relationship with Vance Dynamics."
David shook his head in disgust. "What we didn't know was that Scott has been presenting himself around town as our 'External Strategic Consultant.' He’s been pitching business to our prospective clients, taking exploratory retainer meetings, and using our firm's letterhead without authorization."
"He told his mother he was promoted to Regional VP," I said flatly.
"He was never even in the running for VP," David scoffed. "He was on a performance improvement plan for eight months before we terminated him. But this... this fraud application you sent over? Using an unverified Crestview email forward to claim active executive compensation? That’s commercial forgery. Our legal team is preparing a formal cease-and-desist right now. If he contacts another client, we are forwarding the entire file to the district attorney."
"I don't care about his corporate games anymore, David," I said calmly. "I’m here to ensure that no assets belonging to Vance Dynamics or my personal trust are associated with Crestview’s severance payouts."
May you like
"Consider it done," David said firmly. "Scott has zero claim to anything connected to this firm. And Allison... I am truly sorry. You carried that man for years."
"I did," I replied, standing up to adjust my blazer. "But the ride is over."
