Four days ago, the no confidence vote was announced, and Mason left me to go to his apartment and then go to the airport.

Halfway to his apartment, I remember him calling me.

"Can you email me everything you have?" he asked. I rolled my eyes as he qualified that statement with a, "I love you but I'm just reminding you because I'm going to be going away for a little bit."

I would have asked where but I knew there was no point.

There was something that I had found in the Red Lion research that had tickled Mason and he was off to go see what it was.

"Don't worry, baby girl," he told me over the phone before he hung up. "I'm pretty sure after I'm back no one will fuck with us ever again."

I tried to keep a brave voice.

"I also can't accept your resignation," Mason had said. I knew this was coming. "I need you close to me for whatever goes down. Trust me."

Well, hun, I'm really trying to trust him here and have faith in him because when he said that four days ago I never thought for a moment that I'd be outside the Board Room four days later watching as each of the Board Members began to sit down and wait on Mason.

I mean, four days ago I had marched to my floor drenched to the bone and written a resignation letter.

Let's not even get into the look of puzzlement on my direct manager's face when Mason replied back to the email I had copied him on saying, "No fucking way."

I mean, you're talking about a middle manager here in his 50s with a bit of a paunch. He sees the brash bad boy CEO commenting and replying back to an email to the 21-year-old intern.

"I don't want to get in the middle of anything," he had told me. "I have five years before I make enough money to retire and I don't wanna know anything."

Well, that left me pretty much free for the next four days, trying my best to organize as much of what I could find for when Mason came back.

Only now, I'm waiting in the conference room, and he's not back.

Technically the meeting is supposed to start at 12 pm. But it's already 12:03 pm.

The Kane Price boardroom is literally something else.

A dark mahogany conference table dominates the room. The room itself has priceless art hanging from two walls. The other wall is all glass, with panoramic views of New York City. And the farther wall is mounted with two-way video screens to allow for people to remotely dial in via videophone. A second flat panel television is on mute right next to the video screen with a constant update on Market Pulse. The reasoning behind the television is that if there is anything where minute-to-minute updates are needed, the Board will have an easy way of keeping abreast of the news.

I'm hovering outside the conference room, but in truth I have no reason to be here.

I mean, think about it. I'm a 21-year-old intern in the Private Equity Group. What possible reason could I have to be in a group of people who have a minimum individual net worth that starts in the eight figures?

None. Except that I'm worried.

The man I love is going to be attacked by these people today. Roy Purpus has called for a meeting that seeks to have this group of people vote against Mason as CEO. I can understand how that would be good for Mom, but I can't understand why Roy would fall for everything that's going on in the news. There's no way he can be viewing Red Lion as a viable investment alternative to everything else Kane Price has right now, can he?

I walk in nonchalantly, as if I have every reason for being there, and sit down on one of the sofa-benches built into the wall. The spaces are usually occupied by Vice Presidents and Directors who provide support documents to members of the Board as well as administrative assistants who fetch papers, water, food, and any manner of sundries. I think I can blend in here. No one upstairs on the 18th floor is going to miss me. In truth, work has sort of ground to a halt today as the eyes of the Firm, and the entirety of Wall Street wait to see what will happen.

There are a bunch of things that I can tell you about how important today is.

No Firm in the history of Wall Street has ever kicked out their CEO.

No Firm in the history of Wall Street has ever been ripped apart like ours is being now based on a power struggle between a husband and wife.

No CEO has ever been in this much of the public spotlight as what the media calls the "Bad Boy of Wall Street." They used to call him the "King of Wall Street" but I think Mom pretty much came and ruined that.

But then again, she seems to ruin everything.

I sit and try to blend in as Roy Purpus strides into the room.

He's a corpulent man, at least 400 pounds and he's known to begin sweating at the slightest of efforts. He's got a thick Texas twang and at least five chins and I can see that he's the exact opposite of Mason in every way.

Sorry if I'm a bit biased, hun. I mean, he's the one that called the No Confidence Board Meeting. I just don't understand why. From everything I've researched he's always been rather indifferent to the investment direction of the Firm. In fact, as long as he'd had his payday he hasn't really cared where the money has come from or the ethical implications. But he's never been one to be an activist.

"What are you doing here, girl?" a voice bites out at me from my side, immediately snapping me out of my reverie and jarring me back to reality.

Standing in a rather tight black pencil skirt and black blouse stands the woman that I had been raised to think was my mother. Lorna Lowell.

At first I don't know what to say, so I remain silent.

"Well, girl," she sneers at me. "You're lucky you even have a job to come back to. Don't push it by sticking your nose where it doesn't belong."

Right, I've pretty much had enough of her.

I stand up, and I can tell there are a few eyes on me.

"You know what, Mother," I say to her trying not to raise my voice. "I think I will stay here. Someone has to keep you honest."

"Don't test me, Becca," my mother says to me. "I've ruined and brought down greater men than you can imagine. Your little boyfriend is nothing. You think you'll be saving him?"

I can feel rather than see more eyes staring at me.

"Lorna," Roy Purpus says from the side as he approaches. "Is everything okay?"

Mother turns her head and looks at Roy with a scathing glare. "Go and sit down, Roy," she commands sharply and I jerk back in surprise at her tone. After Mason and then her, he's probably the next most powerful Board Member at Kane Price. He's a Senior Managing Director and he's been with the Firm forever. But what's even more surprising is that he listens to what Mother says, even meekly accepts her public rebuke of him.

"We'll start the meeting as soon as I deal with my wayward daughter," Mother says, more to the room than to anyone in particular.

But why is she giving orders?

I need to stop this. Whether or not Mason Kane is here, someone needs to speak up.

"Mr. Purpus, before you sit down and let my mother take over this meeting since Mason isn't here, there are a few things you need to know about what I found out about Red Lion Aviation," I say out loud to Roy, raising my voice. He turns around and looks at me, as if noticing me for the first time.

I gulp. That did it.

The entire room is now looking at me.

But this is my chance.

"I've done some research into Red Lion Aviation," I begin, my heart starting to beat a mile a minute.

I mean, I'm 21 years old. I'm not supposed to be addressing the Board of Directors of one of the most powerful investment banks in the world.

But here I am.

God, sometimes I hate Mason for stranding me here like this.

"And?" Roy asks.

I notice Mom smile and walk to the head of the table.

A few people eye her warily as she sits down at the head of the table where Mason would be sitting.

I need to get what I have off my chest as quickly as possible.

"We all know the reasons why we're either for or against taking a majority-minority stake in their company," I say. "We think they could grow, but they've got a horrible safety record."

"That's not news," a Board Member that I can't identify says from somewhere in the room.

They're already losing patience with me.

They think I'm a petulant little girl.

They're not going to take me seriously.

But no one else is standing up to her.

I need to continue.

"After their last accident off the coast of Bali, I noticed something about their routes," I begin, reaching to the sofa-bench and pulling up my file that I had brought with me. "The number of passengers and routes began to decrease."

"So?" a Board Member—again unidentifiable—asks me.

"So, they began posting higher and higher profits," I say to the room. "Even as independent industry ratings agencies began to note fewer and fewer passengers."

The room is silent at this point.

"In fact, for an entire month at the beginning of this year, they had almost two weeks of planes that were running empty. Yet that was their most profitable month ever," I tell the room. "Don't you see? Something very strange is going on here. Something that probably violates the Anti-Money Laundering Act as well as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act as well as a host of other US laws that could shut us down!"

"Stop being so dramatic, little girl," Mother says dismissively from her seat.

I turn to her.

"You don't care anything for this company," I seethe at her.

"Lorna, it may be something we wish to investigate," another Board Member who I remember being sympathetic to Mason says.

"We will do no such thing based on the lunatic ravings of a little girl," Mother says out loud before looking at me. "Especially the rantings of a girl who has seduced my husband and your CEO and is now acting out like a spoiled and wicked little brat."

There are gasps from around the room. Of course people have read the papers, but having to confront what they read with someone standing right in front of them is jarring.

I stiffen my back and look at my Mother.

"You're overthinking what is merely a diversion for Mason, dear," Mother says to me. "You're nothing more than a plaything for him until he gets bored. Only this time, he's gone too far and allowed the company to suffer."

"Mr. Purpus," I beseech the large man as he turns away from me. "You have to do something to delay the vote until Mason can be here to explain himself and tell you about his concerns about this company in person."

Roy looks at me for a long moment. I can see pain and sadness in his eyes.

"I wish I could," he says, shaking his head at me. Then he turns to Mom. "I think we can get started."

I can't believe it!

They're going to remove Mason from his own company.

And there's nothing I can do to stop it.

Tears begin to fall from my eyes as I see the world start to go dark. I wonder if I'm going to faint.

"I would like to say a few words before you guys get started," Mason says.

Wait.

What?

No, you read that right.

That was Mason.

Only he hasn't walked in.

People are gasping and pointing to the television.

He's sitting there next to the anchor on Market Pulse.

"Hi, everyone," he says with a smirk; the same smirk he's used on me many times. I can see his eyes shift slightly. "Hey Becca."

He can't see me, but somehow my cheeks turn red at being recognized by him.

But wait a second.

He's on TV.

He can't see me. Right?

Did he just say 'Hey Becca?'

You're not supposed to be able to see two ways through a television, right?

Apparently a lot of people are wondering the same thing too because they're talking amongst themselves and pointing.

Mason smiles as if he's amused through all this.

"In the future, you may want to turn on the television for the two-way video screen and not just leave the camera running, folks," he says on live TV. "Because right now I can see and hear the whole thing logged in from my computer. I've been there for quite a while now. And Becca was right. Do I have quite a story to tell you."

All of a sudden, Mother notices something.

And she turns very, very white.