Part 3My CEO Father's Golden Mistake

When my assistant showed Brianna Bishop into my office, she carried an air of undisguised contempt. She didn't greet me, just dropped into the chair opposite my desk. "You wanted to see me, Ms. Sterling?"

"You're fired."

I had planned to question her, to understand her reasoning. Seeing her entitled smirk, I realized it was pointless.

"On what grounds?" she demanded, her voice sharp with indignation. "Mr. Quinn hired me personally!"

"On the grounds that you just lost us the Horizon account," I said without looking up from the file in front of me. "Horizon has been a loyal partner for two decades. In one meeting, you managed to destroy that relationship. That's a catastrophic failure. I'd fire you twice if I could."

"Sterling is a huge company. We have other clients," she scoffed, as if she were explaining basic economics to a child. "And that discount we were giving Horizon was costing us a fortune. I was saving the company money!"

Her complete and utter cluelessness was so staggering I almost laughed. Arguing with her would be like wrestling with a pig in mud.

"David," I said to my assistant, "please escort her to HR to process her termination."

Brianna refused to move. "You can't fire me! Do you think Uncle Robert knows you're doing this? He brought me in himself!" She shot David a dirty look as he approached. "Don't touch me!"

Then she pulled the ultimate card. "You're only doing this because your parents are getting divorced, and you blame my mom! Well, guess what? My mom and Uncle Robert are getting married. I'm going to be his daughter soon, and this company is his! That means it will be half mine one day!"

I pressed my fingers to my temples, feeling a headache bloom. If the daughter was this stupid, the mother couldn't be a genius. What on earth did my father see in her?

"David, what are you standing there for? Call security."

He fumbled for his phone, his face a mixture of shock and embarrassment at witnessing this family drama. Brianna saw him make the call and escalated, whipping out her own phone.

"Uncle Robert, you have to come quick! They're trying to throw me out!"

My father, it turned out, was faster than building security. He burst into my office, his face etched with worry.

The second he appeared, Brianna’s entire demeanor shifted. Her face crumpled, her voice became a fragile, wounded thing. "Uncle Robert," she whimpered, "I don't know what I did to make Chloe so angry. She just came in and said she was firing me."

"It's okay, sweetheart. I'll handle this," he soothed, looking at her with heartbreaking tenderness before turning to me, his eyes blazing with fury. "Chloe, this is about us, the adults. You will not drag Brianna into it. She's an innocent party here."

I let out a cold, sharp laugh. "Innocent? She used her connection to you to get a job she's completely unqualified for, and her first act was to lose us one of our biggest clients. And you're telling me she's innocent?"

My father clearly hadn't heard about the Horizon deal. He glanced at Brianna, a flicker of confusion in his eyes.

She immediately launched into her defense, her voice thick with fake tears. "Uncle Robert, I didn't mean to! I was just trying to do what was best for you. Giving Horizon such a huge discount… it was your money I was trying to save."

I snorted. She wasn't trying to save his money. She was trying to save what she thought would one day be her money.