His Intern Kissed Him, So I Destroyed His Company Chapter 03

His Intern Kissed Him, So I Destroyed His Company Chapter 03

I had raised that eighty thousand dollars by selling the old suburban house my parents had left me.

Ethan’s parents had invested, but their money bought equity. They had already made back dozens of times their original investment.

Now Ethan was twisting that equity investment into a handout his family had supposedly given me.

I looked at him calmly.

“So you’re determined to put Sophia in charge of engineering?”

“She’s not taking over. She’s only there to supervise.”

Ethan raised his chin. His tone made it clear there would be no argument.

“Starting tomorrow, every engineering project will need Sophia’s written approval before it moves forward.”

“Since you’re clearly incapable of acting professionally, I’m suspending you from management until you’ve reflected on your behavior.”

“Once you learn to respect younger employees’ ideas, I’ll restore your authority as CTO.”

I looked at him without responding.

The office fell silent for a moment.

Mistaking my silence for surrender, Ethan stopped pressing and slipped back into his usual casual tone.

“All right. That’s enough about work.”

“My parents reserved a private dining room at the Marriott downtown tonight. They want to discuss the arrangements for our wedding next month.”

“Seven o’clock. Don’t be late.”

With that, he turned toward Sophia, and his voice immediately softened.

“Come on. We still need to review the proposal we have to send the client this afternoon.”

“The documents are in my car. I’ll come with you to get them.”

Sophia nodded obediently, slipped her arm through his, and walked out of the office with him.

I remained where I was, staring at the cup of coffee still steaming on the desk.

A smear of Sophia’s lipstick marked the exact spot where Ethan had just taken a sip. Whatever was happening between them was no longer hidden.

At seven that evening, I opened the door to the private dining room at the Marriott and heard laughter coming from inside.

Ethan’s parents were seated at the far end of the table, with Ethan beside his mother, Catherine.

Sophia sat on his other side, eagerly pouring wine for Robert and Catherine and passing them napkins.

I stopped in my tracks for a moment.

I had not expected her to be there.

She kept calling them “Mr. Walker” and “Mrs. Walker,” but her tone was so warm and familiar that anyone would have thought she was the one who belonged in their family.

The moment I walked in, the laughter stopped.

Catherine’s gaze traveled from my coat down to my shoes before she frowned in disgust.

“You came dressed like that?”

“You’re a senior executive, yet you can’t even dress appropriately for dinner.”

I ignored her mockery, pulled out an empty chair, and sat down.

Robert slammed his whiskey glass onto the table.

“Ethan told us you were throwing your weight around at the office today.”

“You openly defied an order from the CEO and deliberately bullied Sophia, a brand-new employee?”

I said nothing and looked at Ethan.

He was cutting Sophia’s steak. When he finished, he slid the plate in front of her.

Sophia took a bite, wearing a deliberately shy expression that did nothing to hide her smug satisfaction.

“Mr. and Mrs. Walker, please don’t blame Erin.”

She deliberately put on a considerate tone.

“She’s been with the company for years, so I suppose it’s natural for her to be a little controlling.”

“As long as I can help the company, I don’t mind if people misunderstand me.”

“Oh my God, I would hate for tonight to turn into a family fight. That would be horrible.”

“See how mature Sophia is?”

Catherine looked at me with disappointment.

“Erin, I honestly don’t understand why Ethan chose you in the first place.”

“You have no family connections, and you don’t know how to maintain professional relationships.”

“Without our family’s money and the clients we introduced to you, you’d probably still be working as an ordinary technician in some warehouse out in the suburbs.”

Robert filled a large glass to the brim with bourbon and pushed it toward me.

“Drink it in front of everyone, then apologize to Sophia.”

“Then we’ll consider the matter settled.”

I stared at the glass of hard liquor in front of me and finally understood the real reason they had invited me there.

They had brought me there to use their authority as Ethan’s parents to force me to apologize in front of everyone and make Sophia’s takeover seem legitimate.