บททั้งหมดของ The Goddess of Divorce Made Me His Boss: บทที่ 101 - บทที่ 110

Bernard POVI stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror of Elena's penthouse at five thirty in the morning, and the man looking back at me was someone I barely recognized. Dark circles under my eyes from another sleepless night, stubble because Elena had criticized my appearance when I took too long shaving yesterday, and the hollow look of someone whose soul had been completely stripped away.This was not the life I had imagined when I left Tracy for Elena six months ago. I had thought I was trading up from a broke, desperate wife to a wealthy, sophisticated woman who would help me reclaim my former status and success.Instead, I had become a kept man who worked all day under my ex-wife's authority and spent all night serving Elena's every whim and demand.At the office, Vanya treated me like the failure I had become. She gave me the worst assignments, the most difficult clients, and the longest hours. She watched my every move, waiting for me to make a mistake that would give h

Vanya POVI threw myself into work with an intensity that bordered on obsession in the weeks following my discovery about Richmond's lies. Every morning, I arrived at the Goddess Jewelry workshop before any of my employees, and every evening, I stayed long after they had gone home. Work was the only thing that kept my mind from spiraling into endless questions about what had been real in my relationship and what had been deception."Ms. Reed, the contracts from the New York boutiques arrived this morning," Madison said, placing a stack of documents on my desk. "They want to carry twelve of our signature pieces in their Fifth Avenue location.""That is excellent news," I said, though I felt none of the excitement I should have felt about expanding into Manhattan. Everything felt muted and distant since Sunday's disaster at Chez Laurent."Also, the Los Angeles distributor wants to increase their order by forty percent for the spring collection," Madison continued. "And we received an in

Bernard POVI sat in my cubicle at Fredrick Construction, pretending to work on architectural drawings while actually studying the documents I had photocopied from Vanya's files the night before. The expansion plans for Goddess Jewelry were even more ambitious than I had realized, with contracts pending in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago worth millions of dollars.Perfect. The bigger her plans, the more spectacular her downfall would be when I destroyed them.For three weeks, I had been carefully gathering intelligence about Vanya's business operations while she remained distracted by whatever personal crisis was consuming her attention. She had been walking through the office like a ghost lately, barely acknowledging my presence and showing none of the sharp focus that usually made her such a formidable opponent.I suspected her distraction had something to do with the man she had been seeing. I had overheard phone conversations between her and her employees mentioning someone nam

Vanya POVI sat in my office staring at the email that had just arrived from Bendel and Associates in New York, and I felt like the world was collapsing around me. After weeks of negotiations, they were withdrawing from their agreement to carry Goddess Jewelry in their Fifth Avenue boutique."Due to concerns about quality control and reliability raised by industry sources, we have decided to postpone our partnership indefinitely."Quality control concerns. Industry sources. The same vague language I had been hearing from suppliers and retailers for the past month as one deal after another fell through for reasons that made no sense.I picked up my phone and called Madison into my office."The New York deal is dead," I told her when she sat down. "They are citing quality control issues that do not exist."Madison looked as confused as I felt. "Ms. Reed, we have never had quality control problems. Our customer satisfaction ratings are over ninety-eight percent.""I know that, and you kn

Elena POVI sat in my home office reviewing the quarterly reports from my investment portfolio, but my mind kept returning to the problem of Bernard Fredrick. What had started as an amusing diversion - keeping a desperate man as my personal companion - had evolved into a liability that threatened my business reputation and social standing.The phone calls I had received about his corporate espionage activities were just the beginning. If word spread through Sacramento's business community that I was associated with industrial sabotage and petty revenge schemes, it could damage relationships I had spent years building.Bernard had outlived his usefulness, and it was time to dispose of him.I opened my laptop and began researching the legal requirements for terminating our business partnership and personal arrangement. The contracts I had required him to sign gave me broad authority to end our relationship for any reason, with minimal financial obligations on my part.But simply kickin