“That’s right.” I said to the room. “I’m stepping down, effective immediately.”
There was a general murmur. Nelson Pitts gave me a sad look, shaking his head, and a few of the men wanted to know why. I slowly walked to the front of the room and waited for silence to fall over the group.
For his part, Bruce didn’t say a word. He didn’t celebrate or do anything other than smile at me, that smug and empty smile. In some ways, that was almost worse.
“This has been a long time coming,” I said. “Valor has grown a lot, and I haven’t been as central to the company as I once was. I created it, established it, and grew it all on my own. I did more for this company than any one of you ever will. But there comes a time when life changes, and I knew that we’ve reached that point. I’m no longer needed at Valor, and it’s time to let someone else take over guiding this ship.”
“What about your shares?” Bruce called out suddenly. I still had a controlling share in Valor, and even if I stepped down from my position, I still was a board member.
“I’m going to sell them off,” I said. “I will retain a twenty percent stake, but I will no longer have a voice on this board.”
More murmuring, I could tell that everyone was surprised at this turn of events. They likely figured I’d step down, but not that I’d sell off my stock and give up my controlling stake.
“Please,” I said. “There’s more.” Silence fell again and I pointed at Bruce Walker. “As you all know, this man hates me. He has campaigned against me tirelessly for years to have me removed. Now, he has finally succeeded.” More murmuring, this time angry from his camp, but I spoke louder.
“He employed a scorched earth policy and obtained some materials which he has been using to blackmail me. I’m stepping down in large part because of that blackmail.”
“Lies!” one of his allies called out.
“Slander, it’s all slander,” someone else said.
“Gentleman, please,” Bruce called out. “He’s just upset that he finally lost.”
Some laughter from his camp.
“I can’t prove it to any of you,” I said. “However, you all know Bruce. You’ve all worked with him closely over these years. Ask yourself, really ask yourself: how far will he go to get what he wants?”
I let that sink in for a moment, looking over every member one after the other. Finally, I landed on Bruce and that smug smile.
“What comes next is your fault, Walker,” I said. “And it’s going to hurt.”
The members began to talk loudly at that point, but I wasn’t listening anymore. I dropped my letter of resignation on the table and left the room as the roar of the board followed me out.
“Carter!” I turned back and saw Nelson following me to the elevators. “Carter, wait. What are you doing?”
“Exactly what I said I’m doing.”
“Is it true? Is he really blackmailing you?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“We can get through that. Let me help you.”
“Thanks, Nelson,” I said, smiling. He had always been a staunch ally and a good man. “But I can’t do it. If I were you, I’d start selling off your stock as soon as possible.”
“Why?”
I checked my watch then smiled at him. “Because I have an interview with a reporter at the New York Times in twenty minutes, and it’s not going to go well for Valor Tech.”
The elevator doors dinged and opened. He said nothing as I stepped inside. I smiled at him as the doors closed, and felt vindicated.
“How much of this is true?”
Paul Bush wore wire-rimmed glasses, a clean white oxford shirt, and pressed khakis. He shook his head at the documents, his eyebrows raised in astonishment.
“All of it,” I said. “As you can see.”
“Why would you give this to me? It’s decades worth of financial documents and more . . . the sort of stuff I shouldn’t ever see.”
“I want the world to know what Valor has been doing all these years.”
“There’s nothing illegal in here, from what I can tell.”
“No,” I agreed. “There’s not.” I looked at Evelyn.
“You’ll find some interesting things happening in some interesting gray areas,” she said. “Things regarding people’s privacy.”
Paul shook his head, clearly blown away. “I don’t understand why you’d want to destroy your own company, Carter.”
“It’s not my company. This morning, I sold my majority share and as of an hour ago, I stepped down from my position. For all intents and purposes, I’m a private citizen now.”