Chapter 3 - Corporate Sabotage
By eight o’clock the next morning, I was at the Purely Petals headquarters in SoHo. The sleek, sunlit office was usually my sanctuary, filled with the gentle aroma of chamomile and organic shea butter, and the hum of my sixteen dedicated employees building a brand that actually cared about families. Today, however, the air felt charged with impending disaster.
My head of PR, Sarah, burst into my glass-walled office without knocking, her tablet clutched tightly to her chest. "Clara, we have a massive problem. The Aurelia resort chain just pulled out of our distribution contract. Chef Marco sent an email ten minutes ago saying their corporate parent company decided to go in a 'different direction.'"
I felt a cold knot tighten in my stomach. "Who owns their parent company?"
Sarah swallowed hard. "Sterling Hospitality Group. Victoria Sterling’s family."
I slammed my pen onto the desk. Victoria didn't waste a second. She knew that securing The Aurelia's fifty luxury family resorts across the globe was supposed to be the catalyst for Purely Petals' IPO next quarter. She was using her family's wealth to choke my business, hoping to financially cripple me so I wouldn't have the resources to fight a prolonged custody battle against the Vance empire.
My office phone rang. The caller ID displayed a blocked number, but I knew exactly who it was. I swiped the screen and put it on speaker.
"Having a rough morning, Clara?" Victoria’s voice purred through the speaker, smooth and dripping with venom. "Business can be so unpredictable, don't you think?"
"You're pathetic, Victoria," I said evenly, leaning back in my leather executive chair. "You think losing a resort contract is going to break me? I built this company with twenty dollars in my bank account and three premature infants in NICU incubators while you were shopping on Fifth Avenue."
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"That was just a gentle reminder of where you stand in the pecking order," Victoria sneered. "Julian is hiring the top family law attorneys in the city as we speak. Hand over custody of the triplets quietly, take a generous settlement, and disappear back to whatever hole you crawled out of. If you fight us, we will destroy your company, ruin your reputation, and take those children anyway."
I smiled to myself, looking down at the encrypted flash drive resting on my desk desk pad. "Tell your lawyers to bill by the hour, Victoria. They’re going to need the money when I'm done with you."
