Chapter 3

Chapter 3

“We just got to the lobby of the Anderson Group building when we got a call from Arthur’s assistant saying he was suddenly ill and the meeting was canceled! Then, our legal department received a twenty-page due diligence checklist from them! They’re demanding detailed reports on everything from my personal finances to the internal relationships of all our senior executives!”

“This isn’t a negotiation! This is the kind of review you do before a hostile takeover! Did you leak our company secrets to him?!”

I laughed softly. “Callum, I simply fulfilled my duty as a director and warned a partner about potential risks. The market has its own way of deciding who’s right and who’s wrong. It seems Mr. Anderson’s team sees the same massive risk standing next to you that I do.”

“Brielle is terrified, and the deal is completely screwed! Are you happy now?”

“Happy? I could never be happy when my husband puts the company our families built at risk for an intern. Callum, this isn’t the end. This is just the beginning.”

After I hung up, Kate sent me screenshots from the company's internal Slack channels. The rumors about Brielle were exploding.

“Heard the CEO almost blew the Anderson deal for her.”

“That Chanel suit she was wearing? Someone looked it up, it’s Paris haute couture. Six figures. For an intern?”

“I heard Sophia came into the office today and confronted her right in the CEO's office. Finance and HR both got involved.”

When Brielle returned to the office, she found herself completely isolated. No one spoke to her. People would literally walk the long way around to avoid her desk. She had been removed from all important work groups.

When she tearfully went to the Head of HR for help, he just handed her a tissue and said, “Brielle, considering the immense stress this situation must be causing you, we believe that for the sake of your health, this may no longer be a suitable work environment for you.”

It was the most common form of corporate "managed exit." In the Manhattan jungle, no one was going to risk their career for an intern to get on the bad side of a Müller heiress and the company's EVP.

But Brielle didn't resign immediately. Instead, she filed a complaint with HR for "workplace bullying" and creating a "hostile work environment." The complaint was aimed directly at me.

I wasn’t surprised when the HR Director called.

“Follow procedure,” I said calmly. “But have the legal department prepare for a fight. And pull the background check authorization she signed when she was hired. I want her entire record, starting from high school. As soon as possible.”

Callum spent a long time trying to salvage things with the Anderson Group, but he got nowhere. By the time he returned to the office, he found that HR had already placed Brielle on "paid administrative leave"―the standard procedure before firing a high-risk employee. Her keycard and computer access had been revoked.

When he got home that night, I was in the nursery, reading a bedtime story to Leo.

He stood in the doorway, his face grim, but he deliberately lowered his voice, his words heavy with exhausted anger.

“Sophia, do you have to be so ruthless? She’s just a girl who graduated from college. She didn’t do anything wrong.”

I motioned for him to be quiet, closed the book, and gently shut the door behind me before turning to face him.

“Callum, do you still not get it? The problem isn’t what she did. It’s what you did. How many of our principles―our personal rules, and your duties as a CEO―did you break for her?”

“You’re the one who gave her false hope. Your indulgence turned her into a virus in our corporate structure. And I am simply running the antivirus program.”

“There is nothing going on between us!” Callum shot back.

“Nothing?” I took a step closer, looking him straight in the eye. “If there was nothing, would you have used company funds to buy her a couture suit that was meant for me? If there was nothing, would you have threatened me by putting a two-hundred-million-dollar contract on hold? If there was nothing, would you have allowed an intern to sit in on a top-secret meeting that could affect the company’s stock price?”

“You even called me―your wife, who just gave birth to your heir―’unreasonable’ for her sake!”

My voice wasn't loud, but every word was like an icicle stabbing him in the heart.

“Callum, I love you, or I wouldn’t have married you. But you should know better than anyone that my love is built on a foundation of respect and contract.”

“If you dare to cross that line―even with just emotional wandering and ambiguity―I promise you, I will make sure Leo has a father who is more worthy of his respect.”

Callum’s face was pale under the lights. He didn’t argue anymore. He just turned and walked into the guest room.

I knew this was our unspoken rule for handling conflict over the past five years―cool off for a night, then talk the next day. But this time, the nature of the problem was completely different.

Early the next morning, before Callum even left the guest room, my legal team had already sent Brielle White’s background check report to my email. The contents were even more… spectacular than I had imagined.