Chapter 4

I laughed, low and quiet.

The sound made Sybilla's skin crawl. She jabbed a finger at my face and shouted.

"What are you laughing at? Have you lost your mind?"

Renee had run out of patience.

She shoved Oliver.

"Oliver, can you handle this or not? Because if you can't, I'm calling my brother right now!"

"And when I do, you can forget about ever setting foot in that company again!"

The threat wiped away whatever line Oliver still had left.

He crossed the room and stopped in front of me, every trace of his earlier panic and guilt gone.

"Jessica, there's no point pretending anymore."

"I stopped having feelings for you a long time ago. You have no idea what kind of pressure I'm under at work."

"Renee can give me resources. One word from her brother saves me ten years of climbing."

"And you? What do you do besides circle the stove all day?"

Oliver pulled a printed stack of divorce papers out of his bag.

The signature date was already filled in. Two weeks ago.

Something in me went cold all the way through.

"So he'd had his exit ready this whole time."

Oliver didn't even bother with the act anymore.

"You're a smart woman. You should understand what it means when two people are worlds apart. Whatever patience and tolerance I had for you, I burned through all of it back when we were scraping by."

"Take the paperwork to the county clerk's office tomorrow."

"For the sake of the marriage, and because you did look after my mom and my sister these five years, I'll give you fifteen grand in compensation."

Five years of my youth.

Every quiet thing I'd carried for him, at work and at home.

In his eyes, all of it came to fifteen thousand dollars.

I looked at that pious, righteous face of his.

"Oliver, do you really think all those promotions and raises came from your own talent?"

He looked as if I'd insulted him to the core.

"Jessica, don't stand there talking nonsense! Everything I have, I earned! The late nights, the overtime, the drinking and schmoozing to land clients!"

"What, are you saying I rode in on your food-delivery tips?"

I ignored his fury and walked over to Renee.

She shrank under my stare and took an instinctive step back.

"You… what do you want?"

I pointed at the carpet under our feet.

"You said a minute ago that Oliver bought you this place?"

Renee steeled herself and threw it back at me.

"That's right! Oliver's name is on the deed!"

I laughed once.

"This building was developed by Zenith Group. Am I right?"

Renee blinked, then turned smug.

"Well, at least you know something. What, jealous? This was an insider allocation. People with money can't even get a full-floor unit like this."

Oliver stood off to the side, cold sweat breaking out on his forehead.

I took out my phone and dialed.

Oliver thought I was going to record him. He shouted, "What are you doing?"

I didn't answer. I pressed speaker.

A moment later, a respectful, middle-aged man's voice came through.

"Ms. Fox. What can I do for you?"

Renee frowned. Sybilla stopped her wailing.

I kept my eyes on the color draining from Oliver's face and spoke into the phone.

"Butler Lambert, look into Oliver Harding. Currently a marketing manager at Zenith."

The voice on the line didn't hesitate for a second.

"Of course. One moment, Ms. Fox."

Renee snorted out a laugh.

"Jessica, has the shock rattled you that badly? Have you actually gone crazy?"

"Ms. Fox? And I'm the Queen of England."

Sybilla came back to herself too, scrambling up off the floor to sneer.

"No money and a broken brain to boot."

"Oliver, throw her out already, before she dirties our house!"

But Oliver's expression kept shifting.

The sweat on his forehead only came faster.

Because only he knew that when he'd joined that company, someone really had put in a quiet word for him.

In under a minute, Butler Lambert's voice returned.

"Ms. Fox, I have it. Oliver Harding, five years with the company—"

My voice went cold and hard.

"Two things."

"First, suspend Oliver Harding from his post immediately and open an internal audit."

"Take all the dirty accounts from his rule-breaking back then, hand them to the legal department, and file a police report."

Oliver's legs gave out. He dropped to the floor.

Renee still didn't believe it.

"Where'd you hire the extra? Not a bad performance, I'll give him that."

I didn't bother with her.

"Second, I paid the down payment on the Starhaven Estate unit."

"File for an asset freeze and trace the balance and where the money involved came from."

"Freeze the property now, and send legal over to settle accounts!"

The words were barely out when Oliver's phone started ringing off the hook.

The screen read: 【Mr. Pruitt】

Renee's own brother.

Oliver's hand shook as he hit answer.

A man's voice came through, terrified and furious.

"Oliver! Who the hell did you piss off?"

"Corporate just handed down a dismissal order, and now I've been dragged into a suspension and an investigation!"

"The chairman's secretary called me personally, said you crossed someone you had no business crossing! Get your ass back to the office right now and explain yourself!"

The smile froze and died on Renee's face.

The thermos slipped out of Sybilla's hands and hit the floor with a clang, the gourmet delicacies spilling everywhere.

Oliver had gone bloodless, his voice shaking apart.

"Jessica… who… who are you, really?"

I slid my phone away and bent down to look at him.

"The chairman of Zenith Group. His last name is Fox."

"He's my father."