Chapter 33
In the less than three weeks of being in charge of the foundation, Stella had gone from quiet and observant to taking charge and exceeding any expectations I could have had for her.
I’d asked Mrs. Miller to keep an eye on her, just to let me know if she was struggling, and I would need to hire an assistant for her, on top of her current secretary.
According to Mrs. Miller, Stella was amazing and already planning the first fundraising event, meant to draw in a younger, more influential, and affluent crowd.
Apparently, she had a few ideas for more formal events that would cater to our class, but her first event was going to cater to her generation. Specifically, bringing social media awareness to all of the great things that the Manwarring Charitable Fund supported—not that I had any idea what those things were—as well as increasing overall brand awareness in the younger generation.
Mrs. Miller seemed almost giddy and excited about the idea.“You don’t understand, sir. The brand has always touted itself as a fine spirit, which it is, but it is only really being advertised to the elite. It is the drink of old white men, what you would expect to find in your grandfather’s library.”
“Careful,” I warned. “It is currently in my library.”
“Mine too,” she said with a smile. “But what Stella is managing to do with this party is make it seem like the preferred brand of whisky for entrepreneurs, musicians, and the most successful people of the younger generation. It’s going to be a status symbol among them as well. She is even meeting with an award-winning mixologist to try a few signature cocktails for the party.”
“Is this your doing?” I asked.
“No, it’s hers. I don’t know how much of it is intentional for the brand, or how much of it is just coincidental. She wanted a unique venue for the party, so it’s going to be held at one of the distilleries. Since it’s at the Manwarring Liquor distilleries, it only makes sense to have drinks made from our whiskey. She is planning what is going to be the social event of the season for every single influencer and mover under thirty. Not just in New York, there are people flying in for this party from all over the world. From what I understand, everybody on the Forbes thirty under thirty list has already RSVP’d. There are several musicians, a few up-and-comers, and a few names I even recognize. Not only that, but she has also set up raffles for tickets that anyone can get with just a $10 donation. Those raffles have already earned 1.3 million dollars in donations.”
“You’re kidding,” I said in disbelief.
I knew Stella was intelligent and that she would be successful at absolutely anything she put her mind to, but this was more than I could have ever expected.
“I don’t say this lightly. I know you have made some incredible deals in your time and have grown this company into something amazing. But bringing that girl here and giving her free rein was the smartest thing you have ever done.”
The rest of the day, I was beaming.
I couldn’t hide how proud I was of my girl.
Mary Quinn and her bullshit were practically forgotten as I sent my assistant a text telling him to arrange a reservation for Stella and me tonight, and to make sure it was somewhere incredible.
My girl deserved to be rewarded.
She and I would go out for a nice meal, and then I intended on having her for dessert.
“I bet he just likes grabbing a handful of that pink hair while she’s choking down his cock.”
A loud male voice came from the executive break room by my office as I was passing by.
“Why else would he let that little whore take over the entire charitable fund? Does he even know what she’s doing? I know she has no idea what she’s doing.”
When I turned the corner, I saw exactly who I was expecting—Brian talking shit and drinking coffee while his entire department was struggling.
Next to him were a few of the other executives, clearly just stopping in to get a cup of coffee and looking extremely uncomfortable.
One of the secretaries was clenching her teeth as she waited for her lunch to heat up in the microwave. She wasn’t the kind of woman to take something like this lying down, but she was smart enough to know that confronting someone like Brian was never the right bet for a woman like her.
It would cost her job, and Brian might even be violent.
Instead, I had no doubt that she was collecting evidence to go to HR to get him fired.
Well, lucky for her, I was going to shorten that entire process.
“I mean, having the yearly charity gala at the distillery is just tacky. I know she’s probably trying to be cool or hip or whatever the little bitches like her call it these days. But she has no idea what the fuck she’s doing.”
“How about you tell me what the fuck you’re doing?” I asked, strolling into the break room.
Brian looked at me for a second, his eyes wide and the blood rushing from his face, but then the cocky little asshole smirked at me. “Just telling it like it is, boss. I think you made a mistake hiring that inexperienced socialite to run the charity. I mean, I’m sure she looks great bouncing on your cock, but is that really the type of image we want to give the charitable fund?”
“Everyone out now,” I barked. Everyone, including the secretary, left the room.
Brian tried to leave with them, but I blocked his path.
“You told us to get out. Make up your mind, old man.”
“Oh, you will be leaving, but we’re going to have a conversation first. I’m going to teach you some fucking manners.”
I grabbed him by his neck and pushed him against the wall, making sure his head hit the plaster with a satisfying thud sound. I didn’t want to do any serious damage, but enough to at least hurt and shake him up a bit.
Just enough that if he decided to be a coward and sue, there was no evidence, and I could destroy him with a defamation suit.
“Get your hands off me.” He struggled, pulling at my fingers. I held him tighter.
“What gives you the right to talk shit about Stella? Or about any of my employees for that matter?”
“Since when did we call whores employees? Just because it’s called a blowjob doesn’t actually mean there’s any work ethic to it.”
“I see. So you think only people who add to the company’s bottom line, who show up day in and day out and do their job effectively, deserve respect? And everyone else is just whores and sluts?”
“Exactly,” he said with a satisfied grin as if I had come to accept his way of thinking and would now join him in some misogynistic douchery. “She is acting like she has a job and isn’t just a pity fuck you put in an office.”
“By that logic, you should be spending every single break you have on your knees in the men’s room, sucking cock for a good quarterly review.”
“You can’t—” he stammered, and I held him against the wall, slowly cutting off his air.
“I can, and I did. Just in case it’s not abundantly clear, you’re fired. You can leave on your own accord, or I will have security drag you out of here by your fucking hair.”
“You can’t fire me for?—”
“I can fire you for whatever the fuck I want. Actually, you were going to be fired at the end of the quarter anyway because you’re shit at your job. But you’ve just given me an excuse to cut the dead weight a little early. Get the fuck out of my building.” I let go of him and expected him to run off.
“No.” He stood tall with that same shit-eating grin. “You can’t fire me. I’m Ronan’s cousin. I’m the one doing all his work on the foundation, and your little whore is just getting in my fucking way.”
I had honestly forgotten I had given Brian the position he had because Ronan occasionally used the foundation to launder money.
I had been letting him do it for so long in exchange for dealing with the unions and other headaches that I had forgotten about our arrangement.
More importantly, I had forgotten that Brian was essential for that arrangement.
That didn’t mean I was going to let this little pissant go around my office talking about Stella. Frankly, I would have fired him if I heard him talking like that about any of my female employees.
But the fact that it was Stella’s name that was coming out of his vile little mouth, it was taking everything I had not to throw him out of the fucking window.
And this little bitch, instead of counting his blessings and running away with his tail tucked firmly between his legs, was actually trying to strong-arm me. Who the fuck did he think he was?
“I don’t give a fuck who your cousin is. You are done here.”
“You’re going to give a fuck when he starts retaliating. You fire me, I promise you that little bitch is going to be in his crosshairs first.”
“You can tell Ronan to go fuck himself. This arrangement is over.”