That evening, I arrived at the emergency board meeting at Vanguard Enterprise headquarters accompanied by corporate security officers who now took their orders directly from me. Brenda Lexington immediately demanded my removal from the exclusive executive meeting, but Douglas loudly announced my new status as the majority shareholder. We projected the security footage of the late night forgery across the large boardroom monitors, causing absolute chaos among the executives and leaving my husband completely humiliated by his own family. I officially assumed my position as the new chairwoman of the company and began a total restructuring of the business. I immediately terminated Paige Snyder for severe misconduct and ordered security guards to escort her off the property while Zachary stood by in total silence. I then revoked Brenda from her consulting position and announced that we would be filing civil lawsuits against her for attempted financial fraud. After they were both removed from the building, I took my seat at the head of the conference table to begin fixing the failing business under my birth name of Fiona Lockwood.
Over the next three months, my aggressive financial restructuring successfully saved Vanguard Enterprise from bankruptcy and pushed our stock value to historic highs. I allowed Zachary to remain with the company as a junior operations manager, forcing him to walk past my massive executive office every single morning. Our divorce was finalized quickly and entirely in my favor, leaving him to pay all of my expensive legal bills. Four months after I sent that public message to his staff, I stood on the porch of my beautiful waterfront property in Bethesda breathing in the fresh morning air. Douglas called to confirm that federal authorities had finished their investigations, resulting in a full legal settlement from Brenda and a criminal plea deal for Paige. We made plans to meet for black coffee later that week to celebrate the conclusion of the entire ordeal. Looking out over the calm water, I felt an overwhelming sense of freedom and pride in the massive empire I had built on my own terms.