6. Edward
EDWARD
One week later…
Despite getting Noelle on my side, I was hesitant to drop her into the center of SME n You. I have a dozen employees working out of a modest open space, and the operation is a well-oiled machine. The last thing I want is a disruption. Besides, I didn't bring her here to manage the staff.
SME n You is merely an official framework to pay for her services and provide a secure perimeter for her to work on sensitive data. She is my ace, the only one who can show me exactly how deep the rot goes under Graham.
But first, I need to know if I’m dealing with a partner or a liability. I trust her vendetta, but I need to be sure she wasn't a silent partner in Graham's fraud—a conwoman burned by a better conman. Honor among thieves is a bedtime story for people who don't understand the bottom line.
I forward her a set of spreadsheets from a laundromat chain we handled three years ago.
My team had flagged them when the profit margins began to defy the laws of economics without a single new store opening.
I’m an accounting major by trade; I live for these discrepancies.
Back then, I’d personally dissected the numbers and found the laundering scheme just before the stores started "randomly" catching fire.
I want to see if she catches the scent as quickly as I did.
She responds in minutes. Taking a look now.
I shut down my desktop and check my watch. It’s time. It took a week to get the board together, but the vultures have finally landed. It’s time to tell them Noelle Carter is gone.
“What’s this about Noelle quitting?”
Thaddeus’s voice hits me the second I take my seat at the head of the table. He’s to my right, the silver-haired patriarch looking every bit an agitated lion. Across from him, Graham sits with an expression of practiced innocence.
The fucker tried to get ahead of the narrative, it seems. He dodges accountability with the grace of Neo from The Matrix.
“That’s why I’ve summoned the board,” I murmur to my father. Then, I stand, waiting for the room to quiet. The table is lined with old money and sharp eyes—men and women who care about one thing: the health of their dividends.
“Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming.”
“Skip the pleasantries, Edward,” Beatrice Pierson, one of our earliest investors, and chair of the board, peers at me over her spectacles. She’s in a charcoal power suit, and looks about as enthused about small talk as a wall. “We were told this was an emergency. Why don't I see anybody panicking?”
“Very well,” I say, clearing my throat. “I’ve gathered you here because we have replaced our VP of Finance. The previous VP is no longer with the company.”
“Did she rob us blind? If not, why are we here?” a man at the far end asks.
“It was Noelle Carter.”
Quiet. Exchanging looks. Then all eyes return to me. Noelle isn't on the board, but she is the engine that drove our last several quarters of growth. To these people, her absence represents a potential threat to their dividends.
The room erupts. Fists hit wood. Voices are raised.
“How?”
“Who authorized this?”
“Why are we just hearing about it now?”
I stare at Graham. He looks every bit of a repentant sinner: hands clasped, head bowed. Then I look at my father, who is stewing in his own silence.
“Please,” I raise a hand. “I’m here to give you the facts. Let me finish.”
“Out with it, Whitmore!” Beatrice snaps.
“She didn’t walk out,” I pause for dramatic effect. “She was dismissed by the head of her division.”
Every head in the room swivels toward Graham. He actually looks like he’s shrinking. He’s used to bullying subordinates, but these are his financial superiors. They know exactly how to make him bleed.
“I’m sure he had his reasons,” Thaddeus’s voice booms across the table, attempting to shield his golden boy. “If my son thought it was time for Noelle to go, I support that.”
“Give me a break, Thaddeus!” Beatrice snaps, standing up. “You’d follow that boy off a cliff if he asked. Tell us what she did, Graham. And it better be good.”
Thaddeus slams the table, rising to meet her. “Don’t threaten him, Beatrice!”
She ignores him, eyes locked on Graham. “Speak.”
Thaddeus sits back down, his leg vibrating under the table. Graham stands slowly.
“Noelle and I were in a relationship,” Graham begins.
“Was she blind?” someone mutters, and it takes a sizeable chunk of self control not to burst out laughing.
Graham ignores the jab. “She started to slack off. She was leaving the bulk of the work to her assistant, Vanessa Kline. The performance you saw last year? That was Vanessa’s doing.”
The room hums with skepticism. All eyes turn to me.
“Well?” Thaddeus asks, stroking his silver beard.
“I found out about the firing the same way the janitors did,” I say. “Graham didn’t run it by me.”
“It’s my division,” Graham snaps, finding a flash of his usual arrogance. “I don’t have to clear every move with you.”
“Perhaps not,” I counter. “But HR? Legal? Or is due process too out of your way?”
Beatrice is back on her feet. “Thaddeus, did I hear correctly? He fired a VP without due process?”
“And,” I add, twisting the knife, “he fired her immediately after they broke up.”
“Oh, hell no!” Beatrice starts to move toward Graham, held back only by the man next to her.
“Graham, for God’s sake!” Thaddeus groans. “What were you thinking?”
“If I was firing her for performance issues, I didn't think the relationship was going to survive anyway,” Graham says with a shrug.
“That’s... reasonable,” Thaddeus says, desperate for a foothold.
I inhale through gritted teeth. My father would perform Olympic-level mental gymnastics to avoid admitting Graham is a liability.
“Reasonable?” another board member asks. “If she sues, it’s her word against his. How do we explain a clandestine dismissal of a top-tier executive?”
Thaddeus looks at me. “Did she sue?”
“Yes.”
The room descends into chaos again. It takes five minutes of shouting to bring the volume down.
“It’s handled,” I say, pitching my voice to carry over the din. “I offered her a job at my firm and convinced her to drop the suit. I also settled her personal account dispute out of my own pocket. We’re in the clear.”
Thaddeus exhales, the tension leaving his shoulders. “Does Zachary agree?”
“He ran point on negotiations.”
The board settles. The immediate threat to their wallets has been neutralized.
“That’s all, folks. Unless anyone has questions. I'd hate to keep you any longer.”
Beatrice is the first to leave. She stops behind Graham’s seat, glaring down at him before directing her gaze at our father. “This boy is going to be the death of you, Thaddeus. Mark my words.”
I’m smiling by the time I get back to my office. I’ve effectively neutered Graham before the board, and given him a false sense of security. To him, the mess is cleaned up. He can go back to his hedonism while I dismantle his life from the shadows.
I boot up my computer. There’s an email from Noelle.
Someone is definitely in the kitchen... because these books are cooked.
I smirk. She’s fast. Faster than I expected. I feel a low-thrumming satisfaction—the feeling of a plan coming together with the right partner.
I start typing. No fluff. No ambiguity.
Top Priority: J&J.
I attach the files I’ve been building on Graham’s shell company and hit send. The war has officially moved into the trenches.