Chapter 4 - The Boardroom Execution
By Thursday afternoon, the executive board of Apex Media convened an emergency ethics panel.
Victoria and I were invited to present our intellectual property documentation via a private video conference with the firm’s chief legal officer and the board chairman, Arthur Sterling.
Gregory sat at the far end of their boardroom table, looking disheveled in a wrinkled shirt, his tie undone, dark circles carved deep beneath his eyes.
Arthur Sterling cleared his throat.
“Mrs. Cole—or should I say, Ms. Vance—we have reviewed the digital forensic audit provided by your counsel.”
“Naomi Vance is fine, Mr. Sterling,” I replied from my studio office.
Victoria brought up the screen share.
Side by side, she displayed the retail campaign Gregory had pitched to the board versus the raw, layered design files created on my workstation eighteen months prior, complete with cryptographic hash verification and copyright filings.
“As you can see,” Victoria stated, “Mr. Cole did not author the ‘Horizon Initiative’ brand strategy. He extracted the materials from his wife’s private archive without licensing or authorization. Furthermore, he billed Apex Media over forty-five thousand dollars in travel and client entertainment that directly coincided with private weekend getaways with an associate employee, Ms. Simone Vance.”
Arthur Sterling turned his gaze toward Gregory.
The look was cold enough to freeze iron.
“Gregory,” Arthur said quietly. “Do you have an explanation for this?”
Gregory fumbled with the paperwork in front of him, his voice cracking.
“Arthur, this is a domestic dispute! Naomi is bitter because our marriage broke down. She’s weaponizing her freelance work to destroy my career out of jealousy!”
“Jealousy?” I spoke up, looking directly into the camera.
Gregory flinched.
“Gregory,” I said, my voice steady and completely devoid of warmth. “You looked me in the eye five days ago and called me boring. You told me I never noticed anything unless it was right in front of me. Did you really believe I wouldn't notice that you built your entire career on the back of my labor?”
“Naomi, please—”
“You wanted a wife who was quiet, docile, and obedient,” I continued. “You wanted me to make you look successful while you took everything I created. But you forgot one fundamental rule: you cannot steal from the person who built you.”
Arthur Sterling closed his leather folder with a sharp, decisive thud.
“Mr. Cole, your employment with Apex Media is terminated immediately for cause. We are revoking your unvested equity options and initiating a full internal audit to recover all misallocated corporate funds.”
Gregory stood up abruptly, knocking his chair backward.
“Arthur, you can’t do this! I brought in the Horizon account!”
“The Horizon client has already reached out to us this morning,” Arthur replied without looking up. “They informed us that they will only proceed with the campaign if Ms. Naomi Vance oversees the creative direction through her independent firm.”
Gregory stared at the screen in pure horror.
He had lost his job.
He had lost his reputation.
May you like
He had lost the multimillion-dollar account.
And the very wife he had dismissed as “boring” had just replaced him at the negotiation table.
