Chapter 6 - The Desperate Call“Good,” I said smoothly, pausing near a granite planter as pedestrians rushed past me on the pavement. “That means the mail service is working efficiently.”
“Elena, you’re not understanding!” Mark cried out, his voice cracking with sheer hysteria. “The papers say you’re suing me for fifty-two thousand dollars in financial restitution! They’re trying to garnish my wages! Mom is having a panic attack, Rachel is screaming because her credit cards got declined at the grocery store, and we’re currently crashing on the pull-out couch of my cousin’s tiny studio apartment!”
“Sounds like a tight fit,” I remarked evenly. “Maybe Rachel should get a job instead of recording TikTok videos all day.”
“How can you be so cold?” Mark pleaded, nearly weeping over the line. “We were married! We shared a life! Can’t we just sit down like civilized adults and talk about this without involving high-priced lawyers?”
“We tried talking, Mark. For six months, I tried to tell your mother and sister to respect my home, and you told me to be more grateful,” I said, my voice dropping into an icy register. “You made your bed—or in this case, your cousin’s pull-out couch. Now you get to sleep on it.”
“Elena, please... I’ll make them leave permanently! I swear to God, I’ll never speak to my mother again if you just drop the lawsuit!”
“Too late, Mark,” I replied. “My accountant brain doesn't do retroactive reconciliations once the audit has been submitted to the authorities. Talk to my lawyer. Goodbye.”
I tapped the red end-call button before he could utter another syllable, sliding my phone back into my pocket with a satisfying click.
When I arrived at the office twenty minutes later, my desk was piled high with commercial real estate acquisition reports. My team of junior analysts was buzzing around the open-plan floor, and my managing director, David Vance, waved me over to his glass-walled corner office as soon as I walked past the reception desk.
“Elena, perfect timing,” David said as I stepped into his office, closing the door behind me. “The board just reviewed your preliminary valuation audit on the Michigan Avenue retail plaza acquisition. They were blown away by your risk assessment metrics.”
“Thank you, David,” I said, feeling a genuine spark of professional pride. “The leasing projections in the original developer’s prospectus were artificially inflated by about twelve percent. Once we scrubbed the tenant default rates, the true yield became obvious.”
David leaned forward, resting his forearms on his desk. “Well, the board wants you to lead the final acquisition negotiations next Tuesday. If you pull this off, the promotion to Partner that we discussed for next quarter? It’ll be locked in ahead of schedule.”
A partner at twenty-nine years old.
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It was the milestone I had sacrificed my weekends, my personal time, and my emotional energy to achieve—the very career milestone Linda and Rachel had sneered at, mocking me as a cold corporate executive who didn't know how to be a "real woman."
“I won't let you down, David,” I said firmly. “Tuesday morning, I’ll have the revised contract ready for signature.”
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