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slamming her leather briefcase down on the table next to Paul. "You haven't fired him yet have you?"

    CHAPTER 4
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    CHAPTER 4
    For a moment, Paul wasn't even sure who had walked into the room. Chloe had totally transformed herself since he'd last seen her. She wore a wig for starters, and a very good one. It was light brown and shoulder length. It looked so natural that if he didn't know she had much shorter hair, he would have guessed that she had dyed it. But it was the outfit that made the change. She wore a well-tailored, very professional, gray woman's skirt/blazer combo with a yellow silk blouse. Her wrist sported what looked to Paul's uneducated eye like an expensive and fashionable gold lady's watch from which he thought he detected a glint of diamond. In short, she looked just like the high priced lawyer she was supposed to be. She was certainly the best-dressed person in the room.
    Chloe reached across the table to shake Greg's hand, stretching forward as she did so. Paul watched Greg glance down at her cleavage while he shook her hand. "I'm Rachel Roth, here on behalf of Mr. Paul Reynolds."
    "Hi," said Greg. "I'm Greg Driscol, and this is..."
    "I know the rogues gallery here," said Chloe cutting Greg off and looking around at the assembled board members. "I've learned all about you gentlemen."
    Marie stood up and shook Chloe's hand. "Marie Cooper, from Johnson, Myers, and Wick," she said.
    "Nice to meet you," she said. "Ok, we've got the intros down, shall we get on with the dirty business?"
    "Um, sure," Greg said as he sat back down. "I was just about to turn things over to Marie."
    The plan was now in action, and so far so good. But Paul knew that this was a crucial moment. Chloe didn't really know the law - just a few points that her friend had helped her out with. She couldn't let the real lawyer take over the meeting. Her dramatic, unexpected entrance had them off guard, and Paul hoped she seized the moment and pressed on.
    Chloe stepped up to the plate right on cue. "Yeah, you know what? Before I let Marie here get going, there are some things I need to go over with you. I think they might have a real bearing on how matters proceed from this point on."
    "Okaaaay..." said Greg. "I suppose that's fine." Paul had heard Greg say a hundred times that he never liked to go into a meeting he didn't already know the outcome of. He was going to hate this one. The CEO looked to Marie for support and she just kind of shrugged, whatever that meant.
    "First things first, I want to let you know that Paul here is more than willing to resign his seat on the board.
    We realize this situation just isn't working out the way we'd hoped, and so it's time for the two parties to go their separate ways." That seemed to comfort them.
    "So, all we have to do now is figure out what Paul gets out of the deal," she continued. "I mean, this whole project was his idea and he does own a sizable chunk of stock. Hell, you guys wouldn't even be here if it weren't for him, right?" No one said anything. "So we figure he's owed something for his time and trouble."
    Greg didn't seem to like where this was going. "We've offered Paul two months' severance and, of course, he gets to keep all the stock he's vested."
    "Huh," scoffed Chloe. "Yeah, as you say, of course he gets to keep the stock he's vested. He already owns that. Not much you can do there, so that's not really a concession. Now giving him the rest of the stock he was CHAPTER 4
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    supposed to vest if he'd stayed on. That would be a concession."
    "I'm afraid that's not on the table," said Greg.
    "Yeah, no way," interjected Frank. Paul wasn't surprised to hear this. They'd never gotten along very well, and Frank was always worried about the bottom line (something Paul had kind of admired until right now).
    "That's fine, that's fine," she continued. "Don't get your panties in a bunch, boys. We just want what's ours."
    She fished around in her briefcase for something and then looked up.