'I went from school teacher to chairman of the board of a big company for the sake of revenge.' UPDATED

"I went from school teacher to chairman of the board of a big company for the sake of revenge."

When I was a tiny kid, my father was my best friend. He worked multiple jobs to support my family, all while powering his way through law school. He even built a couple of small businesses from the ground up with a couple of his friends. All while doing this, he managed to be the best dad ever, spending as much time as he could with my mother, myself and my baby siblings.

One day, we found out that he had stage 4 stomach cancer, the kind that you don't recover from. My mother and I stayed by his side all the way til it was all over. The last memory I have of my father was when he was completely immobile, practically a vegetable at this point with tubes going in and out of his body and me just praying that he'd still be able to remember who I was.

All the guy could do was smile at me just to let me know he still recognized his son even if the doctors told us most of his memories would be gone. Eventually, he fell into a coma for some days before waking up to say goodbye to my mother who was by his side when he died. She was a housewife so we really didn't have much to go on after his d**th.

Enter, my grandfather. He was one of those self-centered boomer types who makes everything about himself. After my father passed, he'd use the newspaper obituary to boast about his dead son's grades and achievements which I realized seemed to be the only thing my dad was to him. Just in case you were wondering, yes, we are Asian.

My mother was grieving and trying to find a way to make ends meet and my grandfather graciously offered to help her control my father's two businesses to help support us. My mother agreed because she didn't have any experience. While we grew up, the two businesses didn't provide much for us, likely because my father was one of the big reasons they were thriving.

Mom was in and out of multiple jobs just to keep us floating. My grandfather offered to help put me and my siblings through school. I managed to score some scholarships with some good schools growing up so thankfully he didn't have to do as much for me, but we were really glad that he helped out with my siblings.

After I made it out of school, I found out that my family was broke and my two siblings were still making their way through medical school. My sister even offered to stop and just get a job, but I told her to keep going because she was doing so well and that she deserved to graduate.

My grandparents had cut us off because they didn't approve of the directions my siblings took in life, especially my sister who was, for them, too female to have a career in medicine (my grandmother is a bit of a misogynist).

"Why are you wasting your time and money becoming a doctor? You're just going to have children and quit."

I was working as a high school teacher when I was contacted by one of my dad's old business partners for one of his companies.

After I asked him about how the company was doing, he told me that my grandfather who was still in control of my father's shares was siphoning money from the company for himself and he was earning way more than he was giving me and my siblings for our education.

So all our lives he'd been making us feel indebted to him for money that was supposed to be ours to begin with and he lied to us by telling us that dad's companies weren't making any money for us at all. We also realized that when he cut us off, he was cutting us off from our own money forcing my siblings to drop out and give up careers that they'd been working their whole lives for.

What's worse is that this was our father's money and we know that he'd wanted it to help us provide for our futures even after he passed and here comes his AH father basically crapping on his legacy for his own enrichment.

I even found out that he used his position to take possession of the company's office space and forced them to set up shop in a smaller cheaper office while renting the original space out under his own name to the company's competitors to make money from them too...all while I had to work multiple jobs to help my mother and siblings pay the bills.

Cue revenge. My grandfather's biggest weakness has always been his pride. In fact, I suspect that he wanted us to think he was helping support us out of his own pocket because he wanted everyone to think he was some kind of hero when in reality he was financially choking us.

I recognized that no matter what my grandfather said, my siblings, my mother and I were legally the owners of my father's company shares. So after having a statement signed by the three of them, I approached all the board of directors sans my grandfather and let them know that I was now that sole representative of my late dad's estate.

My grandfather also made himself chairman of the board (according to the company records, he did no work for the company at all so the position was just a name that allowed him to receive money) so I convinced them that since he was only chairman as representative of my father's estate, that made me the chairman (I did not intend to keep the position because I did not have the experience for it.).

Then I contacted other members of my extended family about my grandfather's unethical practices with the company's office space. He was eventually pressured by them into evicting the company's main competitor from their office space. Serves them right for conniving with my grandfather to take the company's old office space.

At the next board meeting, I prepared for the moment I'd been waiting my entire life for. When he entered the conference room, to preside over the meeting as the chairman, he found his chair facing away from the table with all the board members already seated at the table, and like a bond villain, I spun the chair around to reveal to him that I'd been the one sitting there the entire meeting.

I told him that the company and my family no longer needed him and that I'd be taking control over representation of my father's estate.

"Do you know that I'm the one who put him and his siblings through school?" He said in shock.

I only went "No. Dad did."

The look of sheer embarrassment on his face was perfect. I've never seen him look defeated my entire life until that moment and this sort of satisfaction could not be achieved by simply ratting him out.

I stepped down from the chairman position and took a job in the company's treasury department as a bookkeeper with a meager salary, but at least now any profit-sharing or dividends that the company released would go where my father wanted it to go... and finally, one of the first decisions I got to make as a board member before stepping down was to give my mother a permanent job that she deserved.

My grandfather is now jobless. He spends all his time at home and because he spent his life being selfish and self-centered, he has no friends. All he had going for him was being able to powertrip over other people and boasting about his assets and achievements.

Even my grandmother has had it with him and the two don't even sleep in the same room anymore. I hope he lives the rest of his short life regretting that he didn't live his life with more compassion and humility.

Edit: I've gotten a lot of comments about the legality of what went on. During all this, the only lawyer working in the company was my grandfather and we all know he did jack s**t. When we hired a team of actual helpful lawyers, they told us exactly the same things you guys pointed out. They're still trying to clean everything up so we don't get into big trouble.

Here's what people had to say to OP:

JackdaLad01 wrote:

Did your grandfather try to apologise or acknowledge his wrongdoings?

Is he trying to worm his way back? What's the relationship like now?

OP responded:

I've been mildly successful as a board member and so far, I think my partners like me enough, but we all know I've got a lot to learn and I've so they're helping teach and train me as much as they can. Most of them are my dad's friends and knew me as a kid.

From time to time, granddad comes to our house to tell us that the company wouldn't still be standing without him and that I owe all our success to him. Nobody at work will corroborate this.

They won't even give him his retirement pay when he asked for it because he can't prove he did an ounce of work. Our last interaction was him gloating to my mother's mom over how he walked more laps around the neighborhood than she did and is therefore more hardworking and productive than she is.

(He is not. My maternal grandmother is amazing and has many hobbies) then proceeding to gloat about how our candidate did not win the elections (we were already very sad that they didn't). So... No he is still an asshole and he might be too old to learn to be otherwise.

emax4 wrote:

"Do you expect me to quit?"

"No-o-o-o Grandafather. I expect you to dieee...."

OP responded:

Unfortunately TA is still alive.

oijoni wrote:

I was gladdened to see you knew you weren't qualified to run the company and stepped down after extracting the revenge. Recognizing your own limitations is not a sign of weakness.

OP responded:

Maybe someday. :)) And given how much mismanagement that was going on, I'd honestly hate to run the company during the time this happened.

ayyyyohh wrote:

Depending on where you live i wouldve said im gonna give you to the count of ten to get your filthy money grubbing poop sucking twig fingers whale keester out of here and never return (home alone movie refernce but seriously wouldve made that chair spin all the better.

Not long after posting, OP shared a small update:

Update: Apparently my sister saw this post and just informed me that he's kinda miserable now because his wife is angry at him because he siphoned what's left of their money to an extramarital sugarbaby he had in probably another attempt at getting someone to affirm and glorify him. I guess he hasn't learned.

Here's what people had to say to OP's update:

bourbonpens wrote:

So sorry this happened at all, but so glad things are heading in the right direction.

dlaugh1 wrote:

If your grandfather was responsible for the company and was chairman of the board, he entitled to a salary and retirement benefits whether you like it or not. Holding the title and presiding over board meetings IS the chairman's job. That he was in charge of the company for several years and the company did not fail gives him a legitimate claim to successfully running the company.

Not one has to confirm his story. If he ran things and the company succeeded, it did so under his leadership. I would be extremely surprised if he does not take legal action against you for putting him out of his job without an appropriate severance package. Unless you can prove he did something illegal, he has claims on compensation.

Thecajunphoenix wrote:

Hopefully you told your late father's DNA donors to pound sand after you extracted justice by clearing away the rottenness that is your father's sperm donor from your father's company. You don't owe your father's sperm donor anything and he has no claim on you and yours when it involves the business. Your father's egg donor needs to butt out and keep her misogyny to herself.