After twenty years of quietly keeping the company alive, I was fired by a CEO who could not even remember my name. Gavin slid a severance folder across the conference table and said, “Clean exits make for clean transitions,” while HR smiled beside him. Buried between the NDA and COBRA paperwork was one strange clause: I had to surrender every remaining shareholder right before Monday’s $150 million merger. He laughed when I questioned it. “Dana, those old shares won’t even buy lunch.” I did not argue. I took the folder home, opened the fireproof box I had not touched in years, and found one dusty 2006 amendment. By sunrise, I understood exactly why they needed my signature so badly
