Chapter 3 - The Boardroom Execution
The next morning,
Jasper arrived at the Robertson Global headquarters wearing a three-thousand-dollar suit.
He walked through the glass lobby with the swagger of a man who owned the world.
His mother and Priscilla were waiting in a nearby cafe,
already picking out jewelry online to celebrate the deal.
Jasper was ushered into the top-floor conference room,
which offered a three-hundred-sixty-degree view of the city.
He sat at the long mahogany table,
shuffling his presentation slides.
The door opened,
and three men in dark suits entered,
followed by a woman who made Jasper’s heart stop.
Hailey.
She was dressed in a sleek,
navy blue power suit,
her hair pulled back in a sharp bun.
She looked radiant,
powerful,
and utterly cold.
Beside her was the man Jasper knew as "Finn,"
the retired contractor.
But this man wasn't wearing a flannel shirt and work boots.
He was wearing a bespoke suit that cost more than Jasper’s entire company.
"Hailey?"
Jasper stammered,
standing up.
"What are you doing here?"
"And why are you dressed like that?"
Hailey didn't sit down.
She stood at the head of the table,
leaning her hands on the polished wood.
"I'm here because I'm the Chief Operating Officer of this company,
Jasper,"
she said,
her voice like a blade of ice.
"And this 'retired contractor' you like to mock is Finnley Robertson,"
"the man whose name is on the front of this building."
Jasper felt the floor tilt beneath him.
The blood drained from his face,
leaving him a sickly shade of gray.
"I...
I didn't know,"
he whispered,
looking at his father-in-law.
Finnley Robertson sat down,
crossing his legs slowly.
"You didn't need to know,"
Finnley said.
"You just needed to be a decent human being."
"You just needed to care for my daughter and my grandson."
Jasper tried to recover,
forcing a desperate smile onto his face.
"Finn,
look,"
"I can explain."
"The bus...
it was a misunderstanding."
"I was under a lot of stress with the deal."
"We're family,
right?"
"Let's just sign the papers and go get a celebratory dinner."
Hailey laughed,
a sound that contained no humor.
"There is no deal,
Jasper."
"In fact,"
"Robertson Global has just acquired the debt of your primary supplier."
"As of five minutes ago,"
"we have canceled your contracts."
"Your investors have pulled out after hearing about your...
personal character."
"Your company is bankrupt,
Jasper."
She pushed a stack of papers across the table.
"These are the divorce papers."
"And these are the eviction notices for your mother and sister."
"The SUV was repossessed from the parking lot downstairs while you were in the elevator."
Jasper looked out the window and saw his luxury car being towed away.
He looked back at Hailey,
realizing that the woman he had treated like a servant was the one who had been holding up his entire world.
"You can't do this,"
he gasped.
"I have nothing!"
"You had a wife and a son,"
Hailey said,
turning to walk toward the door.
"But you traded them for a lunch reservation."
May you like
"Don't bother coming back to the apartment."
"The locks were changed an hour ago."
