LOGINShare
C5
publish date:
2026-08-24 00:34:10Chapter 5
A Room Full of People Who Already Decided
The boardroom smelled the way it always did, coffee and old carpet. That hadn't changed. Everyone sat in the seats they always sat in. Edmund at the head of the table, near her father's usual chair, close enough that Ivie noticed and hated that she noticed. Her aunt was two seats down. Faces she knew her whole life, arranged the way they'd always been arranged, except today none of them would quite look at her.
"Thank you all for coming on short notice," Edmund said, once she'd taken her seat. He kept his eyes on the table when he said it, though the words were plainly for her too. "I know it's an unusual time for this."
Ivie set her folder down in front of her. She'd prepared for this the way she prepared for anything, notes, figures, a clear sense of what she'd say if she got the chance. She didn't know yet that the chance wasn't really coming.
"I'll get to it," Edmund said. "The past few days have put the family and the company in an uncomfortable position. I don't think anyone here enjoys discussing it."
Nobody answered that. A few people looked at their folders instead.
"The press has a version of events," he went on. "Whether that version is accurate isn't something I'm in a position to judge. But it exists. And Sterling Holdings has to respond to what exists, not to what we wish existed."
"I can tell you what happened," Ivie said. "If anyone actually wants to hear it."
"We do." Edmund's voice was gentle in a way that suggested otherwise. "But we also have to be honest that the timing is difficult. There's a licensing deal closing in six weeks. Two board members got calls from the press yesterday. We're in the middle of something, whether we like it or not."
"So am I," Ivie said.
That got a small silence. Her aunt shifted slightly in her chair.
"Of course," Edmund said. "Nobody's forgetting that. This isn't about blame."
"It sounds like it's about blame."
"It's about stability." He folded his hands on the table. "I'd like to propose that you step back from day-to-day operations for a short period. Not permanently. Just until things settle and the company stops being a headline every morning."
"Step back from what, exactly."
"Meetings. Client-facing work. Anything with your name attached to a public decision. You'd still be informed. We'd just handle the visible parts for a while."
Ivie looked around the table. Nobody was quite meeting her eyes. A man near the end cleared his throat and checked his phone.
"I've worked here for six years," she said. "I know this company better than most people at this table."
"Your ability isn't the issue, Ivie," Edmund said.
"Then what is?"
He didn't answer that directly. Instead he looked at her aunt in a small motion, like he was passing her the next part of the conversation.
"Ivie." Her aunt's voice was careful, practiced. "You've had a terrible week. Nobody expects you to be at your best right now. That isn't a criticism. It's just true."
"So the answer is to take my job away."
"Nobody's taking your job away." Her aunt said it fast, the way people say things they've already decided on before they walk into the room. "We're asking you to let us carry some of it. For now."
Ivie opened her mouth, then didn't. She looked down at her folder, at the notes she'd made that morning, the numbers she'd checked twice, and felt something tighten in her chest that had nothing to do with anger yet.
"I came here to talk about the business," she said finally. "Not about how I'm doing."
"We know," Edmund said. "And I promise you, that's exactly why we're doing this. So you can come back to it once things have calmed down, instead of defending yourself in every room you walk into."
It sounded almost kind, said like that. That was what made it hard to answer.
"For how long," she asked.
"We'll review it."
"That's not a length of time."
"No," Edmund said. "It isn't."
Someone at the far end shifted papers, a small restless sound. Nobody spoke for a second.
Then a man Ivie recognized, one of the older board members, cleared his throat. "I want to say, for the record, are we doing this based on a gossip article? That seems like a strange thing to build a board decision around."
Ivie looked at him gratefully. It was the first real crack in the room.
"It's not about one article," Edmund said, calm, unhurried. "It's about the pattern of the last week. The article is a symptom. I'd rather we deal with the actual situation than pretend the coverage doesn't exist."
The man nodded slowly, like he wasn't fully convinced but didn't have the next thing to say. He didn't raise the point again.
"I'd like to hear from the board," Ivie said, looking around the table now, at faces that had watched her grow up in this building. "Not from Edmund. From you."
A woman near the middle, someone who'd known her father for thirty years, looked at her own folder instead of at Ivie. "I think Edmund's suggestion is sensible, given the circumstances."
A man beside her nodded, briefly, and said nothing at all.
Heat climbed into Ivie's cheeks. She kept her hands still in her lap. She didn't trust them not to shake. She'd been raised to keep her voice even, to never be the one who made a scene in a room full of people who mattered. She'd learned that at every dinner table her father ever sat her down at.
"I can still do this job." Her voice came out quieter than she meant it to. "I've always been able to do this job."
Nobody answered that either.
"Let's vote," Edmund said, not unkindly, like he was moving the meeting along rather than closing an argument he'd already won. "For a temporary reassignment of Ivie's operational responsibilities, pending review."
Hands went up around the table, one after another. Ivie watched them go up and counted without meaning to. She didn't need to finish counting to understand.
Her aunt's hand went up last, and even then, without hesitation.
"Motion passes," Edmund said.
Ivie sat still. Nobody looked pleased with themselves. Nobody looked ashamed either. They simply closed their folders and began gathering their things.
"Thank you all," Edmund said, and the room began to move, chairs pushing back, folders closing, the ordinary sounds of a meeting ending.
Ivie gathered her things without really seeing them. She walked out ahead of most of the room, because she needed to be somewhere else before her face did something she couldn't control in front of these people.
She was almost to the elevator when she heard her aunt's voice, low, coming from the alcove near the water station. On the phone. Ivie slowed without deciding to.
"Yes, it's done," her aunt was saying. "Better than I expected, honestly." A pause. A short laugh, quiet, satisfied. "This works out better than we could have planned."
Ivie stopped walking.
Her aunt turned slightly, phone still at her ear, and saw her standing there. Whatever she said next, she said it while moving away, do
wn the far end of the hall, her voice dropping until Ivie couldn't make out anything at all.
Latest chapter
The Vows we broke C17
Chapter 17 What the Papers Say About HimIvie set the folder from Alexander’s office on the kitchen table, unopened, and opened her laptop instead.She typed his name into the search bar. Three years of press releases arranged themselves into a tidy, flattering timeline. Blackwood International’s expansion into logistics. A profile calling him “notoriously private.” A charity gala photo dark suit, not smiling, standing slightly apart from the group even in a posed shot.None of it told her anything she hadn’t already picked up sitting across from the man himself.She scrolled back further. Ten years. Fifteen. The coverage thinned the deeper she went, the way it does for someone who kept himself out of cameras on purpose. She tried a different search: Alexander Blackwood early career.Most results repeated the same short paragraph, word for word, the kind of biography a company writes about itself and lets journalists copy from it without checking. Built his first company from a small
The Vows we broke C16
Chapter 16- Marriage, Typed at the Top of the PageIvie stared at the word again Marriage.She hesitated with her hand over the paper, then slowly drew it back into her lap.Alexander said nothing.She looked up."This is a joke right?”“Does it look like a joke to you?""You're asking me to marry you?""I'm offering a contract. Marriage is a legal structure that facilitates the possibility of the rest of it."Ivie exchanged a long look with the page, then with the remainder of the folder still tucked beneath his hand. "You said you could clear the debt. Keep the house.""Yes. If you agree to become my wife under the contract.”"For how long.""Two years minimum before either of us can request a termination. After that, either party may dissolve the arrangement freely under the given terms.""And during those two years.""You keep the house. The debt is cleared in full. Your father's estate remains your responsibility. You retain your name, if that is your preference. Nothing is clai
The Vows we broke C15
Chapter 15 Two WeeksIvie had barely woken when she stretched beneath the sheets and yawned. Sleep still clung to her, but she pushed herself out of bed and reached for the clothes she had left on the chair the night before.She was pulling her top over her head when her phone buzzed on the bedside table.She stopped.For a moment, she considered ignoring it. Then she reached for the phone and unlocked the screen.An email.She opened it.The message was short and formal. An invitation to a meeting concerning a mutually beneficial arrangement. The time was stated clearly. So was the address.She stared at the screen for several seconds before letting out a quiet hiss and dropping the phone back onto the bed.Of course.She should have known Alexander Blackwood wasn't finished with her.She picked up her clothes and walked into the bathroom.The shower helped wake her up, but it did nothing to settle her thoughts. By the time she
The Vows we broke C14
Chapter 14What He Doesn't Say Out LoudShe had said no without actually saying it.Alexander sat with that after she left, the pen still in his hand until he noticed and set it down. Most people who came into this office already knew how the meeting would end. They arrived prepared to accept whatever terms he offered because they had run out of other options. Ivie Sterling had not done that. She had made him repeat himself. She had called him on the pacing before he had fully decided to do it.He hadn’t planned for that.Seventeen days still left her with almost no room to maneuver. She would need the money. Pride only stretched so far when a house and a deadline were involved. But the arrangement would require more handling than he had expected, and he preferred plans that did not need handling.He buzzed his lawyer’s office. “Marcus Reid in my office now, if he’s free.”Reid arrived twenty minutes later with a laptop bag over one shoulder.Alexander didn't waste time.“I want you to
The Vows we broke C13
Chapter 13 The First Ten MinutesThe meeting was set for ten the next morning. Reyes had sent her the address, but Ivie didn’t recognize the place. She hadn’t even agreed to anything yet, yet he had already arranged everything as though her answer had never been in doubt.She didn’t trust Alexander. She didn’t trust the place he wanted her to go, either. But trust was a luxury she could no longer afford.She had seventeen days left.Maybe less.The following morning, Ivie took a bath and chose one of her best outfits, the navy suit she used to wear to board meetings.Putting it on brought back memories she had been trying not to think about. Those days when she had walked into her father’s company with confidence, knowing exactly where she belonged. Now, the same clothes felt almost like something borrowed from a life that no longer existed.She ate a quick breakfast, then ordered a Bolt ride and showed the driver the address Reyes had sent her.The drive was quiet.Ivie stared out t
The Vows we broke C12
Chapter 12The Last Number in the ColumnThe bank opened at nine. Ivie was on the phone a few minutes past nine.“Hello, good morning.”“Good morning, ma’am. How may I help you?”“I need to speak with the loan officer.” Ivie said over the phone “One moment, please.”She waited, gripping the phone tighter when the call finally connected.“Good morning. This is the loan department.”“Hi. I want to apply for a loan.”“Alright, ma’am. What amount are you looking for?”“I’m not sure yet. I have a problem I need to solve, and I have seventeen days left.”“Alright, what is your name please.”“Ivie Sterling,” Ivie replied, hoping for good news.There was a short pause.“Okay ma'am,” the loan officer said. His tone was polite, but distant. “But the deadline isn’t the problem. Your financial profile has changed.”Ivie frowned. “Changed how?”“Your income status. A month ago, you had steady employment with Sterling Holdings. Our records now show that your position has been terminated, so your c
You May Also Like
HIS REGRET (Ex-Husband wants Me Back)
Major_Canis1.9M viewsAddicted to Loving You: The Paranoid and Domineering Boss's Convicted Wife
Gu family's Little Bamboo692.8K viewsShe Accepted Divorce, He Panicked
Nyx Rai772.7K viewsMy Bestfriend's Brother Shouldn't Know How I Taste
Demiah13651.1K viewsThe Last Light Between Us
SB_Authors289 viewsREBORN TO RUIN HIM
Micky 109 viewsI REBORN 14 DAYS BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE AND MET A WEREWOLF
Rejoice Ezeh201 viewsREBORN 2 DAYS BEFORE ICE AGED APOCALYPSE: MY SECOND CHANCE
Oma328 views
