They Threw Us in the Snow. I Owned Everything. Chapter 10

New Year’s Eve. 9:58 a.m.

I walked into the boardroom of Mercer Development wearing my grandmother’s pearl earrings and carrying one thin folder.

Grant was already at the head of the table. Beside him sat a lawyer he clearly couldn’t pay, and Diane, who had absolutely no right to be in that room and had walked in anyway, in sunglasses, because Diane has never waited to be invited anywhere in her life.

Sloane’s chair was empty.

Remember that. We’ll come back to it.

Priya set down her briefcase and read the agenda like a grocery list.

Silver Birch Holdings: seventy percent of shares. Verified. Meeting properly called.

Item one: removal of Grant Mercer as CEO, for cause.

Item two: removal of Grant Mercer from the board.

Item three: appointment of Hannah Mercer as interim CEO.

“You can’t do this,” Grant said. “This is MY company. I built it-”

“With my two million dollars,” I said. “You signed page nine. Want me to read it to you? I made you a grilled cheese that day. You said it was boring paperwork.”

His lawyer leaned over and whispered something. Grant went pale.

The vote took one minute. Seventy percent to twenty. Two board members suddenly remembered they’d always had “concerns.”

Then Priya laid out the rest, in a flat voice that made it so much worse.

Company money spent on personal expenses: one Range Rover, a Cartier bracelet, a penthouse deposit, eleven months of “client dinners” at a hotel suite. Two hundred thirty-four thousand dollars. Referred for recovery.

Then she turned a page.

–

“Additionally, the company has discovered that Ms. Sloane Carter – legal name Sharon Pruitt was given full access to company bank accounts as ‘marketing director! Over the past four months, one hundred sixty thousand dollars was wired from company accounts to an offshore account in her name. Mr. Rhodes-” she

corrected herself, “-Mr. Mercer personally approved every transfer.”

The room went dead silent.

Grant’s lips moved. “Sharon?”

“She’s wanted in two states for fraud,” Priya said. “The police have been notified.”

Diane ripped off her sunglasses. “That is a LIE! Sloane is carrying my grandson! The gender reveal is at FOUR!”

“Sit down, Mrs. Mercer,” Priya said, “or security will remove you. Again.”

It was over in fourteen minutes.

They gave Grant a box. A cardboard box for his desk things. I thought about the garbage bag. I hoped it felt heavy.

He caught my arm in the hallway by the elevators. His fingers were trembling.

“Hannah. Please. Wait.”

I looked at his hand until he let go.

–

“I can’t pay it back,” he said hoarsely. “I’ve got nothing. And Sloane – she hasn’t answered since yesterday. Her apartment’s empty. I see it now, okay? I SEE what she is. So let’s start over. You and me. You were always the smart one. You were always the one holding it all together-”

I want you to understand something. He genuinely believed this was a good offer.

Broken, jobless, facing a fraud recovery claim, this man was offering me the incredible opportunity to pay for him all over again.

“Grant,” I said, “the first time cost me two million dollars and eight years. I don’t make expensive mistakes twice. That’s why I have a company and you have a box.”

His face crumpled. Then hardened.

“You’ll be alone,” he hissed, “Me and Mom are going to that party, and Sloane will show up, and I’ll have a son. A real family. And you’ll be a bitter, lonely-”

My phone buzzed. A text from Tom Avery.

“She’s here. Harborview Country Club. She’s going to the party. She’s going to collect the gift money and

run,”

I looked up at my husband.

“Grant,” I said. “You should really go to your son’s gender reveal.”

He stared at me.

I smiled.

“I’ll be there too. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”