Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Ms. Thorne, Mr. Vance has been very close to this company lately. The projects aren't massive, but he visits their office at least twice a week. That's not even counting the Zoom calls."

My assistant handed me the tablet. It showed Sterling's travel logs for the past month.

I scrolled through it. "Go on."

"There's something else..." She hesitated.

"After Luna Rivers was fired, she was hired by this exact company. Her title is Assistant to the Business Director."

My hand stopped mid-swipe.

"A fresh grad who was blacklisted by the entire industry suddenly becomes an assistant to a director?"

"The company isn't on our core partner list. They're a second-tier supplier. We usually don't micromanage small firms like that."

I put the tablet down and leaned back in my chair. My assistant stood perfectly still, waiting.

After two minutes, I finally spoke.

"How many active contracts do we have with them?"

"Three. Two are mid-execution, and one was just signed."

"Terminate all of them."

Her pen hovered over her notepad. "All of them? Ms. Thorne, we already paid the deposit on one of those..."

"Forget the deposit. The breach-of-contract clauses favor us anyway. Have legal send the notice today."

"Understood. Anything else?"

I pulled up my contacts and started scrolling.

"Pull the list of every vendor that works with that company. Call them personally. Every company that wants to keep doing business with the Thorne Group must cut ties with them immediately."

"Ms. Thorne, isn't that a bit... aggressive?"

"This is nothing," I said, tossing the tablet onto the desk.

"When I tell someone to disappear, I don't mean for them to just wear a different mask. Whoever built that bridge for her needs to watch it burn. If they won't tear it down, I'll bury the bridge and the people on it."

My assistant took a deep breath and nodded before rushing out.

She spent the entire afternoon on the phone. By evening, she told me that not a single person dared to say no.

When Sterling came home that night, he looked miserable. His phone wouldn't stop ringing.

He declined call after call, his temper flaring. "I know, I know! Just hang on!"

I was eating dinner when he finally slammed his phone down and looked at me.

"Did you do this?"

"Yes."

"Do you have any idea how much that project affects our bottom line?"

"I do."

"Then why?"

"Sterling." I put my fork down.

"I told you to fire her and scrap the car. You did. But then you immediately set her up with a new job and funneled company business to her. Did you really think I was that stupid?"

He opened his mouth, but no words came out.

"You can think I'm jealous. You can think I'm a control freak. You can think I'm heartless. But you will never treat me like a fool."

I walked over to him, standing inches from his face.

"This is my final warning. Stop the games."

Sterling stared at me for a long time, his eyes filled with a messy mix of emotions.

He looked away, his voice sounding raw.

"Seraphina, can't you just let people live?"

I smiled thinly. "Which 'people' are we talking about, Sterling?"

He didn't answer.

I walked into the study, tossing one last sentence over my shoulder before closing the door.

"Speak up for her one more time, and the next move won't be this polite."