Chapter 17 - The Last Proxy.
The archive ceiling filled with black smoke.
Charlotte could hear firefighters entering the basement from the service corridor.
Daniel pulled her toward Thomas.
"We leave now."
Charlotte looked once more at the steel cabinet.
Then she saw a red manual suppression lever behind a support column.
"Wait."
She broke free and ran toward it.
Daniel shouted after her.
Heat burned Charlotte's bruised skin as she reached the lever.
She pulled with both hands.
Nothing happened.
She pulled again.
The mechanism snapped downward.
A violent burst of foam erupted from ceiling nozzles.
White suppressant covered the archive in seconds.
The flames shrank.
For several seconds, nothing was visible except foam, steam, and pulsing emergency lights.
Charlotte dropped to one knee, coughing until her ribs hurt.
A firefighter tried to guide her away, but she pointed toward the cabinet again.
She had lost thirteen years with her father.
She would not let fire erase another thirteen years of truth.
Firefighters rushed past Charlotte toward the remaining hotspots.
Daniel reached her and looked furious.
"Never do that again."
Charlotte coughed.
"Put it in writing."
Thomas laughed weakly from his wheelchair.
It was the first sound of joy Charlotte had heard from him in thirteen years.
A firefighter opened the steel cabinet.
The contents were damp but intact.
Inside were corporate records, handwritten notes, photographs, and sealed legal packets.
Miriam arrived with detectives moments later.
She opened one packet and froze.
"Charlotte."
"What?"
Miriam handed her a notarized proxy agreement.
Thomas Vale had transferred his voting shares to Eleanor years before his disappearance.
But the agreement contained a survival clause.
If Thomas was alive and mentally competent, his voting rights automatically returned to him.
Charlotte looked at her father.
"How many shares?"
Miriam did the calculation.
"Seventeen percent."
Daniel understood immediately.
"Enough to control the board with Charlotte's trust."
Thomas shook his head.
"Not yet."
They looked at him.
"Victor forced me to sign another proxy three years ago."
Charlotte's stomach tightened.
"To whom?"
Thomas closed his eyes.
"Arthur Bell."
The board chairman had more power than they realized.
Miriam flipped through the documents.
"A coerced proxy can be challenged, but not instantly."
Daniel checked his phone.
"Arthur has called another board vote for 1:00 a.m."
Charlotte stared at him.
"He can do that?"
"The first motion failed."
"This one is different."
Daniel turned the screen toward her.
The new agenda proposed an immediate sale of Solmere's flagship hotels to a private investment group.
If approved, the empire would be broken apart before morning.
Charlotte read the buyer's name.
Northlake Capital Partners.
Miriam swore.
"Victor controls Northlake through nominees."
Thomas looked at Charlotte.
"Then this was always the plan."
"If he couldn't own Solmere, he'd sell it to himself."
Vanessa entered the archive with her phone raised.
"We have another problem."
She showed Charlotte a live news broadcast.
Victor Hale stood outside the hotel surrounded by reporters.
He looked calm and concerned.
"Tonight's events were caused by Charlotte Vale," Victor told the cameras.
"She is unstable, dangerous, and attempting a hostile seizure of a company she abandoned years ago."
Charlotte stared at the screen.
Then the reporter asked Victor whether he knew Thomas Vale was alive.
Victor smiled sadly.
"That man is not Thomas Vale."
Thomas's face went pale.
May you like
Victor continued.
"He is an impostor hired by Charlotte."
