Chapter 5 - The Public Execution
The silence in the forty-fifth-floor boardroom was so heavy that the quiet hum of the air conditioning sounded like a jet engine.
Ryan was the first to break. He leaped out of his leather chair, knocking his water glass onto the mahogany table, sending a cold puddle spilling over the legal documents.
"You crazy bitch!" Ryan shrieked, stepping toward me with his fists clenched. "You can't fire me! I spent ten years building this company!"
Before Ryan could take a second step, Julian moved.
With terrifying speed, Julian stepped around my chair, grabbing Ryan by the throat of his expensive silk shirt and shoving him back against the wall with enough force to make the framed corporate portraits rattle against the drywall.
"Lay a hand on my fiancée, Ryan," Julian whispered, his face inches from my brother’s pale, sweat-slicked forehead, "and I will personally ensure you spend the next decade in a federal penitentiary for grand larceny and wire fraud."
Ryan choked, his eyes wild with terror as he gripped Julian’s wrist, entirely helpless against Julian’s strength.
"Julian, please!" my father cried out from the end of the table, his voice cracking into a desperate, sobbing whine. "She’s your sister, Ryan! Claire... please! We are your family! You can't do this to your own blood!"
Julian released Ryan, letting him slide down the wall onto the floor, gasping for air. Julian calmly adjusted his cuffs and stepped back to my side, entirely unbothered by the violence.
I stood up slowly, leaning forward over the conference table, looking down at my father.
"Family?" I asked quietly, my voice echoing off the glass walls. "Where was 'family' when you took my college tuition to pay for Ryan’s third sports car? Where was 'family' when you forced me to work eighty hours a week at two jobs while you told everyone in Greenwich that I was 'unambitious'?"
My father lowered his head, tears dripping down his wrinkled cheeks onto his silk tie. "I... I was trying to protect the family name..."
"You were protecting your own ego, Thomas," I said. "You used me as a servant in my own life. But the servant just bought the house."
Victoria Sterling pulled a second set of documents from her leather bag, setting them neatly in front of the frozen board members.
"Pursuant to the new voting majority," Victoria announced, "Claire Bennett is officially installed as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Bennett Development Group. All executive credit cards, company vehicles, and access codes assigned to Thomas and Ryan Bennett have been revoked as of eight minutes ago."
Two armed security guards stepped inside the boardroom, carrying large cardboard boxes.
"Gentlemen," I said, looking at my father and brother. "You have ten minutes to clear your personal belongings from the executive suites. If you are on these premises at 9:00 AM, you will be arrested for corporate criminal trespassing."
Ryan scrambled up from the floor, his face red with humiliation and fury, dragging our broken father toward the door. As they reached the doorway, Ryan turned back, glaring at me with pure venom.
"You think you won, Claire?!" Ryan spat, his voice shaking. "You think Julian Mercer actually loves you?! You’re just a novelty to him! A little kitchen girl he picked up to spite Dad! The second he gets bored of your revenge story, he’s going to drop you right back into the gutter where you belong!"
I didn't answer him. I didn't need to.
May you like
Julian stepped behind me, wrapping his warm, strong arms around my waist, pulling my back firmly against his broad chest, placing a lingering, romantic kiss on the side of my neck right in front of the entire boardroom and my fuming brother.
"Get out of my building, Ryan," Julian said softly.
