Chapter 5 - The Rat Cornered
Twenty-four hours after the disaster at the Grand St. Regis, the tech industry was in total meltdown.
Headlines across the country read: "TECH CEO FIRED AT OWN ANNIVERSARY PARTY" "THE BILLIONAIRE DAUGHTER WHO BUILT MERCER LOGISTICS IN THE SHADOWS"
Ethan’s face was plastered across every financial channel, but not for the reasons he had envisioned. The IPO was temporarily frozen pending an audit, and the company's valuation had actually soared by fifteen percent once the market realized the massive financial backing of the Bennett family was officially stepping into the light.
I sat in the corner office on the 45th floor of the Bennett Tower, sipping black coffee. The view of the Manhattan skyline was stunning, a stark contrast to the small apartment Ethan and I had shared when we first started out.
The door swung open, and Julian walked in, dropping a tablet onto my desk.
"Ethan’s legal team just filed an emergency injunction," Julian said, taking a seat opposite me. "They're claiming you coerced him into signing the board consent forms under emotional distress, and they're contesting the validity of your sixty-eight percent stake."
"On what grounds?" I asked, not even picking up the tablet.
"He claims the shell companies were fraudulently set up to hide assets during the marriage," Julian chuckled. "He's desperate, Claire. He has zero liquidity. The corporate cards have been frozen, his personal accounts are flagged for the police investigation into Olivia's stolen necklace, and his landlord just served him a notice."
"What about Olivia?"
"She spent the night in central booking," Julian replied smoothly. "Ethan couldn't post her five-thousand-dollar bail because his accounts are frozen. She’s currently offering to turn state's evidence against Ethan in exchange for a plea deal regarding the corporate wire transfers."
I smiled faintly. Loyalty among thieves never lasted long.
"Where is Ethan staying?" I asked.
"A mid-tier hotel near Queens. Paid for with cash he had in a safe." Julian leaned forward. "Claire, he called our main line six times today. He wants a settlement meeting."
"Grant it," I said, setting my coffee cup down with a sharp clink.
"Are you sure? I can flatten him in court within forty-eight hours."
"No," I replied, standing up and walking toward the glass window. "He wanted a public show. He wanted to strip me of my dignity in front of three hundred people. I want him to look me in the eye when he signs over the rest of his life."
My phone buzzed on the desk. It was an unknown number, but I knew who it was. I picked it up and hit speaker.
"Claire!" Ethan’s voice was frantic, ragged, stripped of all the arrogance he had possessed forty-eight hours ago. "Claire, listen to me. This has gone too far. You've destroyed my reputation! Olivia is talking to the district attorney! My board seat is gone!"
"You destroyed your own reputation, Ethan," I said calmly. "I simply stopped protecting you."
"We were a team!" he screamed into the phone. "I loved you! You can't just throw away three years because of a mistake!"
"A mistake?" I echoed, my tone freezing over. "You humiliated me on national television. You mocked our lost children to impress a room full of venture capitalists. That wasn't a mistake, Ethan. That was your true nature."
Silence hung on the line for a long moment. When Ethan spoke again, his voice was dark, laced with venom.
May you like
"You think you've won, Claire? I built that company's core routing engine. You might have the money, but without my access keys and proprietary source code, your precious IPO is dead in the water. You need me."
I chuckled softly into the receiver. "Ethan... who do you think taught you how to write that code?"
