Chapter 9 - “She Was Supposed to Hit Me”There are sentences that rearrange a room even when heard days later through headphones.

She was supposed to hit me.

Walter replayed it.

Caroline replayed it.

The independent investigator hired by the board replayed it.

Nobody interpreted it for several seconds.

Then Lucas answered on the recording:

“Now we can’t use this.”

Delilah:

“Turn it off.”

The clip ended.

That was the first direct evidence that the birthday confrontation had been engineered to provoke me.

Not merely anticipated.

Engineered.

Delilah’s lawyer attacked the meaning.

Maybe she meant she expected me to slap back after being struck.

The timing suggested otherwise.

Lucas’s question came immediately after the incident.

The board investigator therefore kept digging.

On Delilah’s work laptop, investigators found a draft file:

HV Incident Summary

Created the afternoon before my birthday.

The document had blank fields.

Date:

Witnesses present:

Nature of outburst:

Physical aggression:

Statements demonstrating confusion/paranoia:

Need for emergency succession meeting: YES / NO

I stared at the empty boxes.

She had prepared a form for my breakdown before inviting me to have one.

Then another draft:

Potential board statement following incident involving founder.

It began:

With profound sadness, the board has become aware of conduct suggesting Mrs. Vance may no longer possess the emotional stability necessary for day-to-day leadership.

The board had never approved that language.

Most directors had never seen it.

Delilah and Lucas were preparing the announcement before the evidence existed.

Caroline was furious.

“This is an attempted manipulation of corporate governance.”

Walter nodded.

“And potentially much more depending on what documents they intended to submit.”

Still, one thing bothered him.

“Why the urgency?”

“What do you mean?”

“If they’ve been building an incapacity narrative for nine months, why force the issue at your birthday?”

The answer arrived from our accounting investigation.

Vance Literary Agency’s loan agreement had a financial covenant requiring audited year-end statements by March 1.

Those statements would reveal the Lucas consulting payments and cash problems.

The publishing company’s annual conflict-of-interest certifications were also due in March.

Delilah would have to disclose—or falsely deny—her husband’s vendor relationships.

They had weeks.

Not months.

If Delilah controlled Vance Publishing before the audits landed, she could influence how the conflicts were investigated and potentially push through acquisition of her struggling agency before its true condition became public internally.

That explained February.

But not everything.

The succession packet cited a document I had not seen in years:

Vance Voting Trust Agreement — 2018 Amendment.

I asked Walter for the current version.

He brought it personally.

The 2018 amendment had named Delilah as eventual successor trustee after age thirty.

The 2023 amendment removed her.

Walter became first successor.

A regulated trust company became second.

“Does Delilah know about the amendment?”

“She received notice that estate documents were updated. She never asked for copies.”

“What does she think happens if I’m declared incapacitated?”

Walter looked at me.

“She thinks your voting control becomes hers.”

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There it was.

The final piece waiting for Part 10.