Chapter 3 - The Boardroom Slaughter
Bennett finally tore his eyes away from the legal decree. He looked at me, a wild, feral desperation twisting his handsome features.
"Eleanor, please," Bennett begged, lowering his voice to a frantic whisper, attempting to step into my personal space. "We can fix this. You don't have to humiliate me in public. I have four hundred investors waiting in the grand ballroom upstairs for the transition announcement. If you ruin my reputation tonight, the hotel's stock will plummet."
"I am acutely aware of the four hundred investors waiting in the ballroom, Bennett," I smiled, a cold, terrifying expression that made him flinch. "But you seem to misunderstand exactly what transition is being announced tonight."
This was the moment he realized he had drastically underestimated the scope of his own destruction.
"What did you do?" he whispered, his chest heaving.
"I didn't just spend the afternoon signing the deed transfer," I explained smoothly, letting my words carry to the listening crowd. "I spent the last three weeks meticulously compiling the unredacted financial ledgers of your shadow accounts. The money you stole from the renovation budget. The phantom vendors you created to funnel cash into offshore trusts. The millions you siphoned from the very investors sitting upstairs."
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Bennett’s knees visibly buckled. He grabbed the edge of a marble pillar to keep from collapsing onto the lobby floor.
"I didn't leave your speech on the printer because I was careless," I continued mercilessly. "I left it there because I wanted you to feel completely, utterly confident tonight. I wanted you to gather every single one of your victims into a single room. Because thirty minutes ago, while you were down here ordering bellmen to throw my luggage onto the sidewalk, my attorneys handed a comprehensive, bound dossier of your financial crimes to every single investor in that ballroom."
