### Chapter 4
After her screaming faded, I sat back down in my chair.
My best friend asked, worried, "What if Frank Barrett really comes after you?"
I took a sip of water, thought for a moment, and called Assistant Salazar back in.
"Dig into Serena Barrett again. Beyond the affair with my husband, I want everything on her."
That evening, the moment I got home, I was pulled into a burning embrace.
"Honey, why the long face?"
John Farley rested his head on my shoulder.
A thick wave of perfume hit me at once, exactly the same scent Serena Barrett had been wearing that afternoon.
Nausea rose in me, and before his lips could touch my cheek, I pushed him off and went into the bathroom.
John followed me in, wrapped his arms around me from behind again, and chose his words carefully.
"I heard you fired the Barrett heiress?"
I paused, watching his fake-gentle expression in the mirror. "And?"
He knit his brows, all concern.
"I know you hate that Chairman Barrett betrayed your mother back then and abandoned you. But the child is innocent, isn't she? And I've heard Serena Barrett is a rare talent."
"I'm saying this for your own good. If Chairman Barrett gets angry, the Youngs will take a hit."
I stared steadily at that handsome, familiar face. Those eyes were deep and captivating; there'd been a time when one glance from him could turn me to jelly.
Now they were so foreign they made my skin crawl.
"John, are you really saying this for my good, or for Serena Barrett's?"
His expression shifted, then quickly smoothed over.
"Baby, of course it's for you." He rubbed my head, helpless. "Just don't take it too far. If it blows up beyond fixing, that does neither you nor the Youngs any good."
I almost laughed.
Saying it was for my good, when how was it any different from a threat?
Two days later, after a meeting ended, I got an unexpected call.
"Girl, it's Frank Barrett. I'm giving you one last chance. Hire Serena as a manager at the Youngs, or don't blame me for being ruthless."
After all these years, that voice I knew down to the bone still made every breath ache.
But his imperious tone pulled a scoff out of me.
"Chairman Barrett, you think far too highly of yourself. The Barrett Group is on its way down. What do you have left to fight me with?"
"What did you say?!"
Frank flew into a rage, almost roaring. "Fine. Very good! You think I can't crush one little Young empire?"
With that, he sent over a batch of photos.
Shot at hidden angles, they showed me going in and out of hotels and high-end clubs, talking intimately with different people.
My brow furrowed.
Frank sneered. "Don't get worked up. The show's just getting started." Then he hung up.
I'd barely gotten home that night when my secretary's call came ringing like a death summons.
"Chairwoman Young, this is bad. Check what's trending, quick!" She was frantic the second she spoke.
I sat down on the couch and opened my browser. Several glaring items sat on the trending list.
#Young Chairwoman Slept Her Way to the Top
#Unwed Pregnancy, the Father of Jennifer Young's Bastard a Mystery
Marketing accounts everywhere were posting bedroom photos of me and shots of me going in and out of hotels, swearing up and down that at thirty I owned a ten-billion-dollar company purely by being some older man's mistress.
Then came another wave. Post after post claiming the Youngs' technology was all a hollow shell, that we only knew how to market and swindle money. The push was fast and vicious, and the comment sections had already fallen.
My secretary was nearly in tears. "It's bad, Serena Barrett is livestreaming!"
I opened the link she sent. Serena sat in front of the camera, face drawn, flipping through a stack of project reports.
"These are the projects I worked on during my internship at the Youngs. I stayed up till dawn every day for them, made the company millions. And Chairwoman Young fired me with a single 'you're not qualified,' no reason at all."
Her eyes reddened, her voice cracking.
"Later I found out Chairwoman Young treats every pretty, capable woman like this. Meanwhile she's hired a whole crowd of men who are good-looking and nothing else, whose competence is questionable at best."
My secretary was shaking with fury.
"That's nonsense, we've only ever hired on ability!"
"Chairwoman Young, what do we do? Several investors are saying if this isn't handled fast, they're pulling their funding!"
Before I could say anything, John Farley strode in from outside.
"Baby, everyone out there is saying you bully new hires, that your private life is a mess…"
