Chapter 3 - A Fresh Cup of Power
At 12:30 PM, the door to my office opened.
Chloe Thorne walked in. Without her audience in the lobby, without Julian standing beside her, she seemed much smaller. The arrogant sneer was gone, replaced by a tight, nervous swallow. She looked at the expansive CEO suite, then at me, sitting behind the massive oak desk in my black suit.
She noticed what was sitting on the desk between us.
It was a plastic cup. An iced matcha latte. Brand new, sweating condensation onto a leather coaster.
Chloe stared at the green drink, her throat bobbing.
“Have a seat, Chloe,” I said, my voice dangerously soft.
She slowly sank into the chair opposite me.
I pushed the matcha latte a few inches toward her. “I thought you might be thirsty. After all the energy you expended this morning.”
“You’re going to fire me,” she whispered, her eyes fixed on the cup. “You’re punishing me for the elevator.”
“If this were about a ruined dress,” I said, leaning back and steepling my fingers, “security would have already boxed up your desk. I don’t care about the water you threw on me, Chloe. I care about the eighteen million dollars you and my husband stole from this company.”
All the color drained from her face. She looked like a ghost.
“Do you own Meridian Strategy?” I asked, sliding the audit report next to the latte.
“No,” she gasped.
“North Axis Consulting?”
“No!”
“Then why,” I asked, my voice snapping like a whip, “are they registered to your home address and your mother’s maiden name?”
“I… I don’t know!” Panic edged into her voice. This wasn’t the fear of a woman caught in a lie. This was the raw, unadulterated terror of a woman realizing she was standing on a trapdoor that had just swung open.
“He told me they were reimbursement entities,” she whispered, tears welling in her eyes. “Julian told me.”
“My husband told you to put your name on shell companies?”
“You think I’m his mistress,” she cried, tears finally spilling over. “I know you saw the watch. You think I’m sleeping with him.”
“The watch certainly suggests a very deep affection,” I said coldly.
“I’m not his mistress, Evelyn!” Chloe slammed her hands on her knees. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
Before she could speak, my office door violently crashed open.
Julian stormed in, his eyes wide, his chest heaving. “Chloe! Don’t say another word to her!”
Chloe froze in her chair, terrified.
I stood up slowly. “What exactly am I not supposed to know, Julian?”
Julian glared at me, his handsome face twisted into something ugly and desperate. “You’re in over your head, Evelyn. You think you can waltz in here and play boss? You have no idea what you’re walking into.”
“I know I’m looking at a man who embezzled millions,” I shot back. “Security is on their way to escort you out of the building. You are suspended pending the board’s review.”
Julian laughed, a harsh, grating sound. “You’re throwing me out of my own family’s company?”
The husband I knew vanished in that moment. The man standing before me was a cornered animal.
As two burly security guards appeared in the doorway, Chloe finally broke.
“He’s my brother,” she sobbed into her hands.
The room fell dead silent. Even Julian stopped struggling against the guards.
I stared at her. “What?”
“Half-brother,” Chloe wept.
The pieces slammed together in my mind with sickening clarity. Julian’s mother, Margaret Vance, the formidable matriarch of the family, had a secret. A child born before her marriage, hidden away overseas to protect the family reputation. Julian had found her six years ago, brought her into the company, bought her loyalty with expensive watches, and used her identity to set up fraudulent companies.
He hadn’t been having an affair. He had been framing his own sister.
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“Get him out of my sight,” I told security.
As they dragged Julian away, he turned his head and locked eyes with me. “You can call yourself CEO today, Evelyn. But tomorrow, I’m burning you to the ground.”
