My wife's ex-boyfriend Trevor Turner, who studied abroad, made a flashy return to the country.
She offered him a high-paying job and went beyond by bringing him along to meet my top business partners.
I gently pointed out that Trevor lacked experience and could jeopardize our company's project.
At that, my wife frowned and said, "We have two kids together and Trevor is just my past. Why can't you move on?"
Trevor sneered, "You're basically just mooching off your wife's family. Instead of working hard, you spend your days being paranoid. It's pathetic."
Staring at my wife in disbelief, I asked, "Since when was I mooching off my wife's family?"
——
"Maddie only kept quiet about the fact that you were practically living off her to save you some dignity. Or have a few years of luxury made you forget the days when you were scrounging for food?"
Trevor sneered right in front of our business partners. He completely ignored their increasingly uncomfortable expressions.
I gave him a cold, steady glare. "And who do you think you are? You're a junior sales rep. What makes you think you have the right to butt in when I'm talking to our president?"
Before I could say more, my wife, Madeline Aslett, slammed her hand on the table.
"That's enough! I brought Trevor here to discuss the project, not for you to throw a jealous tantrum and humiliate him!"
I turned to Madeline, stunned, wondering if I’d misheard her.
I had set up this dinner with our senior partners weeks ago, carefully preparing every detail for the contract signing. Yet, instead of showing up herself, she arrived ten minutes late—with her ex-boyfriend Trevor in tow.
Then, the first that man did? He offended our business partners.
Instead of protecting the company's interests and telling Trevor to leave, Madeline turned on me.
Unbelievable.
Our business partner frowned at us.
"If all of you still have personal matters to sort out, let's call off the collaboration for now. I prefer working with people who are prepared."
Madeline's eyes widened in shock. She hadn't expected our partner to withdraw suddenly from the deal.
I gave her a cold, steady look, making no move to step in. This mess was entirely her doing.
Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, Trevor spoke up.
"Mr. Cox, wait! Please don’t go. We’re genuinely committed to this partnership.
"How about we sweeten the deal and offer an extra 10% discount?"
Trevor's words made our partner stunned and so did I.
And for a good reason too! The 5% discount I had originally negotiated was already the absolute limit to keep the project profitable.
Now Trevor just thrown out a reckless 10% discount without a second thought. This was bad. We would lose all of our profit for this project, worse, we'd be deep in the red. We locked in on a massive losses on both materials and labor.
No matter how furious I was, this company was something Madeline and I had built from the ground up. There was no way I’d stand by and watch Trevor drive it into the ground.
"Mr. Alan Cox, Trevor is a new employee at our company and isn’t familiar with the details of this project. If you're still interested in working together, we can stick to the 5% discount we initially agreed on. That way, we can ensure a fair, mutually beneficial partnership."
If Trevor had any sense, he would’ve shut up and stepped aside.
Unfortunately he didn't. He doubled down, pretending to be innocent as he spoke.
"I thought Horace and Mr. Cox were practically best friends. Guess I was wrong if 5% is all the goodwill you're offering. My bad for speaking out of turn."
He even gave himself a sheepish little slap on the forehead, grinning like it was all just a harmless joke.
"But hey, if Mr. Cox is willing to take a hit just to help out a buddy, who am I to argue? I’ll leave you guys to it."
His words put me in an impossible position. He made it sound like I was trying to shortchange Mr. Cox instead of negotiating in good faith.
Fuming, I grabbed Trevor’s wrist. "What the hell were you saying?!"
In business, trust and transparency are everything. And now, thanks to Trevor’s twisted words, I looked like the one trying to pull a fast one.
