After the New Year holiday, work resumed—and my wife, Marlene Henson, blindsided everyone by bringing in a returned overseas student to restructure the company.
"Henson Group is on the verge of signing a partnership with the Delgado family of Grandview."
"Which means we need to purge the dead weight first!"
The man stood on the elevated stage, eyes locked on me with open contempt. "So the restructuring starts with you—you parasite!"
He then called out the eighty employees I'd personally recruited.
I turned to Marlene. "Someone's coming after your husband. You're not going to say anything?"
She was quiet for a moment. Then: "Let's go with what Miles suggests. He's doing this for the company. And he's a top-tier talent."
Three years of marriage. This was the first time she hadn't taken my side.
The room went still with shock.
But I laughed.
Of course. The words of a first love always carried more weight.
What she didn't know was that the Delgado family had only agreed to the partnership as a way to get closer to me.
——
Onstage.
Miles Sullivan—freshly returned from abroad—fixed me with a taunting smirk and spoke again. "I'm announcing that effective today, Jacob Gilbert is stripped of his position as Vice President. His new assignment: restroom janitor."
"As for the other eighty? Terminated. Every last one."
The room erupted.
"On what grounds are you firing us?"
"Exactly! Vice President Gilbert led us with everything he had. We never made a single mistake—we delivered outstanding results!"
Some pushed back.
Others watched with barely concealed amusement.
"Hmph. Being loyal to Jacob Gilbert is your crime!"
"I've been sick of him for a long time. Riding Ms. Henson's coattails, bossing the rest of us around."
"Sure, he got us bonuses. Sure, he gave us more time off. But at the end of the day, he's just the CEO's lapdog. Not exactly someone who belongs in the boardroom."
"Some community college kid—how's he supposed to compare to Consultant Sullivan, who studied overseas?"
More than a few of them owed their careers to me. Now they were turning like weathervanes in a storm.
"Enough! Everyone, quiet!"
Marlene slammed her palm on the table.
For a split second, I thought she was finally going to speak up for me. Then her tone shifted.
"Jacob."
"I know you've contributed to this company. I know you once traded yourself to kidnappers to save me. But the company is finding its footing now, and you've been falling behind the new pace. So..."
She knew all of that. And she was still doing this to me.
I cut her off. "So you're teaming up with an outsider to burn the bridge after crossing it? To toss aside the person who got you here?"
If not for me working around the clock, day and night, Henson Group would have gone bankrupt three years ago.
And whether the Delgado partnership went through at all? That hinged entirely on my say-so.
"Don't make it sound so ugly. This is all for the good of the company." Marlene's brow creased. "If we're committing to reform, we have to go all in. No exceptions."
"You and your people—you've taken up too many positions in this company."
Her explanation.
To my ears, it was hollow. Paper-thin. I couldn't help pressing one more time. "Is this really all for the company? Or is it because he was the moon you could never reach?"
Silence crashed over the room like a wave.
Even Marlene's eyes went wide.
No one had expected me to tear that secret open in front of everyone.
The truth was, it had been an open secret in the company for a long time—Miles Sullivan was Marlene's idealized love from college. Her untouchable first love.
To win him over, she'd written a hundred love letters. Confessed dozens of times.
Rejected. Every single one.
The day Miles flew overseas, Marlene stood in the rain and wept. She spiraled for months before she finally pulled herself together.
Everyone knew. No one dared bring it up.
"Jacob Gilbert!"
"You're truly despicable—trying to guilt-trip your way out of being fired!"
