Chapter 9: Cassandra’s Net Tightens

The email arrived, a mandatory “departmental review” meeting for my team. The subject line alone was enough to make my hands clench.

Conspicuously, my name was absent from the list of presenters. Instead, Cassandra had appointed Silas Albright, my own uncle, to lead the review.

The agenda was a detailed, critical assessment of “past project inefficiencies” and “redundant resource allocation” within my department. It was a thinly veiled attack on my work, designed to publicly discredit me.

This wasn’t just about the “restructuring” anymore. This was Cassandra’s final, desperate move. She wanted to ensure I left Brightwood Holdings not just unemployed, but disgraced.

I saw the trap clearly. Silas, compliant and opportunistic, would present a scathing report, exaggerated and twisted to paint me as incompetent. It was her last act of professional assassination before my ninety days were up.

A frantic urgency seized me. I had mere days before this meeting. The merger’s final approval was imminent. Aunt Martha’s cryptic words about “unforeseen claims” and “the great table” echoed in my mind.

I was cornered. But I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of seeing me break.