Part 2My CEO Father's Golden Mistake

Mom and Dad signed the papers and filed them at the courthouse. All that was left was the mandatory thirty-day cooling-off period. In the meantime, Dad started moving his things out, preparing to build his new life with his old flame.

While he was technically leaving with nothing, he’d made a good salary over the years and had his own personal savings. My mother, in a gesture of goodwill, didn't touch his personal accounts. He wasn't walking away literally penniless. But the houses, the stocks, the investments tied to the Sterling name—those were all hers. After buying a new house for himself and Diane, most of his savings were already gone.

With the personal assets settled, it was time to deal with the company. The board meeting was set for the following week, and our PR team was already drafting strategies to manage the fallout from a CEO change at a publicly-traded company.

I thought things were moving along smoothly. Then I walked into the office on Monday and stepped directly into a crisis.

"Ms. Sterling," my assistant, David, said, his face pale. "We have a problem. Horizon pulled out of the contract renewal."

"Horizon? They've been with us for twenty years. The renewal was a sure thing. What happened?"

David looked down at his shoes, shuffling his feet.

My voice dropped. "Tell me. Now."

"It was the new manager, Ms. Bishop. Mr. Quinn put her on the account. She… she told Horizon that the discount we offer them was too generous. She said Sterling is the only company that can meet their supply needs, so she was raising the price. Horizon refused to sign."

"Why wasn't I told about something this important? And who the hell is Ms. Bishop? Why would HR hire such a monumental idiot?"

"Mr. Quinn said she was to have full authority and report only to him," David mumbled. "And… HR didn't hire her. Mr. Quinn brought her in himself."

My father was a sharp businessman. He never made careless mistakes with major accounts. For him to bring in this "Ms. Bishop" and give her this much power meant something was very wrong.

"Get me Mr. Davis from Horizon on the phone. I'll handle this personally. And tell Ms. Bishop I want to see her in my office. Immediately."

While David was gone, I pulled up the new manager's file.

Brianna Bishop. A degree from some obscure overseas university that sounded more like a diploma mill than a real school. Zero prior work experience. And she’d been hired directly as a manager in the sales department.

When had the standards at Sterling Corp. dropped so low?

Then I saw it on her resume, listed under emergency contacts. Her mother: Diane Bishop.

My father's "one that got away."

Of course.