Chapter 4

4: 4

4

"The first covers Ms. Agnes Pruitt, an employee of Songzhi Group, breaching her confidentiality agreement while employed and leaking photo and video evidence of the company's internal event."

"The second is a formal legal notice regarding her defamation of my reputation on social media."

The man on the other end nodded.

"Ms. Delgado, I saw that livestream. The statute of limitations is fine. I'll need about two business days."

"Good."

I hung up and pulled the livestream back up for a look.

The viewer count had already passed three hundred thousand.

Agnes was crying even harder now, her voice full of the broken sound of someone pushed around and abused.

I smiled, took a few screenshots, and sent them to Greg's private number.

"Your precious little sister is out here milking you for sympathy on a livestream. Fun, isn't it?"

"Look at that fake, saccharine act of hers. Do you still think she's so pitiful?"

Less than two minutes after I sent it, Greg was calling.

I tossed the phone onto the sofa and went to the bathroom to splash some water on my face.

By the time I came out, the livestream had already been shut down.

There were five messages from Greg waiting on my phone:

"I just saw it."

"I already made her shut it down."

"I'm sorry. I didn't know she was doing something like this."

"Lottie, let me explain…"

The last one: "I'll come see you myself tomorrow."

The next morning, Greg didn't come.

Grandma Sanchez did.

She sat on the sofa in my office, dressed grand and elegant.

"Lottie."

She unscrewed her thermos and took a slow sip.

"I saw what was online. That little secretary, I've already had Greg fire her."

"Grandma Sanchez," I said, sitting down across from her, "if you've come today to patch things up, you'd do better to save your breath."

The old woman sighed.

"That boy Greg has a soft heart. He told me this Agnes girl was an orphan. When he hired her, he saw how hard she had it, so he looked out for her a little more. He never imagined it would blow up into this."

"Lottie, you're a good girl too. You two have been married three years now. There's no need to go breaking up over something this small, is there?"

So Grandma Sanchez had heard about the divorce too.

I listened in silence while she went on, then gave a small smile.

"Grandma Sanchez, back when you were closing deals in business, did any of your rivals ever try the sob story on you?"

The hand holding the thermos paused slightly.

Those shrewd eyes fixed on me for a full five seconds before she smiled again.

"You're right, Lottie. People like us, the one thing we should never fall for is a sob story."

"But Lottie, you and Greg are a marriage alliance. Do you know what an alliance is? It's two families bound together to build a life."

"You blow up over something like this, threatening divorce and pulling your capital, and the Sanchezs take the hit. Does that mean the Delgados' stock is going to climb?"

I pushed the teacup in front of me aside and spoke calmly.

"Grandma, you're talking about interests. I'm talking about rules."

"Back when the alliance was made, the agreement my grandfather signed with you had more than just the financial terms. There was a clause too: both sides keep to their boundaries and do nothing that costs the other their dignity. Do you remember it?"

The old woman's lips moved, and her expression finally shifted.

"Agnes in the passenger seat, her shrimp peeled for her, wearing my nightgown. Three times already. I warned Greg. Three strikes and that's it."

I stood, came around the desk, and made to see her out.

"I gave Greg his chance. He's the one who wouldn't hold onto it."

"And what's more, that week he vanished, he spent it with Agnes."

"He may not have agreed to it out loud, but he's already made his choice, hasn't he?"

The old woman rose slowly and looked for a long moment at the social media photo in my hand.

In the end she conceded, sighing with regret.

"Fine. You young people and your affairs. I'm old. This is beyond me now."

Grandma Sanchez said nothing more and left.

Several quiet days followed, calm and uneventful.

Until the day I was told the investment capital had been successfully withdrawn.

I nodded, thoroughly satisfied, and told everyone at Songzhi Group.

"Two days of paid leave for all of you."

"And there's a company dinner tonight. Anyone who wants to come is welcome. Five-star restaurant."

A good number of them were longtime staff I'd brought over from the Delgados. Now that Songzhi Group was going under.

Of course I meant to bring them back with me.

That very day, Greg had gotten Agnes settled and was on his way back to sit down and talk things through with me properly.

But he'd barely made it to the office, travel-worn.

Before his assistant told him.

"Mr. Sanchez, it's bad. Songzhi Group's funds have all been frozen! And all the investment capital the Delgados poured in has been pulled out too…"