Patricia looked at him steadily. "The third member has already called a special board session for tomorrow morning," she said. "The stated purpose is to discuss executive leadership continuity." "They're going to push her out, Marcus said. They're going to try, Patricia said.
Whether they succeed depends on several things happening very quickly over the next 18 hours. Marcus' phone buzzed. He looked at it. Evelyn, he answered. I heard, she said.
Her voice was contained, but he could hear something moving underneath it. Not fear exactly, more like the sound of a person who has been in controlled motion for 18 hours and is feeling for the first time the specific weight of stopping. Are you okay, he said. I don't know yet, she said. Honest, the way she'd been honest since she stopped pretending.
The board is calling an emergency session tomorrow morning. I know, he said. Patricia just told me. They're going to remove me, she said. I've been counting the votes in my head since I got in the car.
I don't have the numbers. No, Marcus agreed. A silence. Not uncomfortable, just real. I built that company for 11 years, she said.
I know. I know I can't keep it, she said. I understand why. I even think it's right in a way I didn't expect to think. The company needs to be rebuilt by someone who wasn't standing at the helm when this happened.
Even if I didn't know, maybe especially because I didn't know. Marcus was quiet for a moment. What are you going to do? Cooperate fully, she said. With everything.
The federal investigators, the board transition, whatever comes next. I'm not going to fight it. Another pause. And I'm going to make sure that the families, all of them, every family in those rejection records that their cases get reopened. I'm going to make that a condition of my cooperation agreement.
Non-negotiable. Patricia can help you get that language in the agreement, he said. I know. A breath, Marcus. What are you going to do?