At midnight, Sebastian placed a single legal document on the table, and I signed my name on the line, and with that signature Preston Calloway ceased, lawfully and immediately, to be the chief executive of Calloway Development.

His cell phone began to ring almost at once.

Then Reginald’s phone rang.

Then Colette’s.

The company’s emergency board meeting had been convened remotely the moment my signature was recorded — a provision, again, that Preston himself had agreed to years ago without reading.

Three independent directors joined by live video, followed by the firm’s outside legal counsel and its chief compliance officer, their faces appearing one by one on the tablet screen Elias held up.

“This is an illegal coup!” Preston shouted at the screen.