I looked at Julian, who was watching me intensely from the dining table.

“I still have my shares, Ethan,” I said.

“Fifty-one percent.”

“The board answers to the majority owner, not the CEO.”

There was a brief silence on the other end of the line.

I could hear the faint hum of his office ventilator in the background.

“You think those old board members will support a woman who went missing in a blizzard?” Ethan asked.

“They think you are unstable.”

“I have already drafted the press release.”

“It says you suffered a severe mental breakdown due to postpartum complications.”

“Don’t do this, Ethan,” I said.

“I am calling an emergency board meeting.”

“As majority shareholder, I am invoking Article Seven of the bylaws.”

He laughed, a sharp, barking sound that made my skin crawl.

“Try it,” he said, and hung up.

The dial tone buzzed in my ear like an angry insect.

I slowly hung up the receiver and turned to Julian.

“He knows we are trying to get in,” I said.

“Then we have to bypass the system and call the board members directly,” Julian said.