Elena didn’t answer. She dialed a number. She put it on speaker.
The phone rang once. Twice.
“Chairman,” a crisp, professional voice answered immediately. “This is Secretary Kim. We are ready for the briefing.”
The room went quiet. The voice on the phone sounded… expensive. Authoritative.
“Secretary Kim,” Elena said, her tone shifting. It wasn’t the voice of a housewife anymore. It was the voice of a commander. “Execute Order 66 on the Roberts Account.”
“Understood, Chairman,” Kim replied without hesitation.
“Also,” Elena continued, looking dead at David. “I am activating the termination clause for Employee ID 4922-Alpha. David Miller. Gross misconduct. Conduct unbecoming of a Nova executive. Effective immediately.”
Clara rolled her eyes. “Oh my god, stop it. You probably have your friend on the other line acting. This is pathetic.”
But David wasn’t laughing. He was staring at his own phone, which was sitting on the table.
Suddenly, it rang.
It wasn’t a normal ringtone. It was a shrill, urgent siren—the specific alert tone Nova Group used for Crisis Management notifications.
David’s face went pale. He reached for the phone with a trembling hand.
“Pick it up, David,” Elena commanded.
David answered. “H-hello? This is David Miller.”
“Mr. Miller,” a voice boomed from David’s phone—the same voice coming from Elena’s speakerphone, creating a terrifying stereo effect in the dining room. “This is the Office of the Chairman. We have received a direct order regarding your employment.”
“What?” David stood up, knocking his chair over. “Who is this? Is this a prank?”
“Your access to the company servers has been revoked,” Secretary Kim continued, her voice echoing. “Your company vehicle, the Audi Q7 currently parked in the driveway, has been remotely disabled and geotagged for repossession. Your corporate credit card has been frozen. You are fired, Mr. Miller.”
“Fired?!” David screamed. “Why?! My numbers are up 20%! I just signed the Rogers deal!”
“The Rogers deal has been cancelled by the Chairman,” Kim said. “As for the reason… you insulted the Chairman’s daughter.”
David looked around the room, wild-eyed. “The Chairman’s daughter? I don’t even know the Chairman! I’ve never met him!”
Secretary Kim paused. “You are looking at her, Mr. Miller. Chairman Elena Vance is standing five feet away from you.”
David dropped the phone. It clattered into his bowl of lobster bisque, splashing orange soup onto his expensive shirt.
The silence in the room was absolute. It was the silence of a vacuum, sucking the air out of the lungs of everyone present.
Brenda stared at Elena. She looked at the woman she had treated like a servant for five years. She looked at the fraying cuffs of Elena’s cardigan.
“Elena…” Brenda stammered, her face draining of color. “Chairman… Elena?”
Elena smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile.
“No,” Elena said softly. “I’m just a freeloader housewife. Isn’t that right, Brenda?”
Part 4: The Truth Exposed
David scrambled to fish his phone out of the soup. “Elena… Mrs. Vance… wait. There’s been a mistake. I didn’t know. How could I know?”
“You didn’t know because I didn’t want you to,” Elena said, stepping forward. The room seemed to shrink around her. “I wanted to see who you were when you thought no one powerful was watching. And I saw.”
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