All Chapters of Thrown Out, Claimed By The CEO.: Chapter 31 - Chapter 40

8:00 AM Lagos Regional OfficeSecurity was waiting at the entrance when Elma arrived. Not for her. For Mr. Bello.The two guards stood just inside the glass doors, posture stiff, eyes forward. They weren’t the usual morning crew. Elma recognized them—contracted from the Abuja office. That meant this wasn’t a routine escorting. Legal had gone outside the Lagos chain of command.She adjusted the strap of her bag and walked past them without breaking stride. Her heels clicked against the marble floor, each step louder than she intended. Her pulse was steady, but her stomach felt like it had dropped three floors.Legal had sent the suspension notice overnight. Effective immediately. Pending investigation.The email had hit her inbox at 1:47 AM. She’d read it three times before she believed it. No appeal process listed. No timeline. Just the word _suspension_ in bold, and Bello’s name underneath.She took the elevator to the 14th floor alone. The doors opened with a soft chime. Pro

9:00 AM — Boardroom, Floor 60The boardroom was full. The air had that sterile chill that only overworked AC and high stakes could create. Forty feet of polished walnut reflected the muted glow of recessed lights, and every seat along the table was occupied. Phones faced down. Notebooks open. No one spoke unless they had to.Elma stood at the front with her laptop connected to the main screen. The cable was a little loose, and she adjusted it twice before the HDMI signal locked. Her palms were dry, but her pulse was steady. She’d run this presentation six times in her head on the ride up. The numbers hadn’t changed. The story hadn’t changed. Only the room had gotten bigger.Richard sat to her right, tie loosened a notch, sleeves rolled to his forearms. He didn’t take notes. He watched people instead. The way they shifted when they were uncomfortable, the way they leaned in when they heard something they liked. The rest of the board sat along the table. Director Amina, sharp-eyed, arm

8:00 AM — Port Harcourt Regional OfficeJanuary 8th started with a full team briefing. The air in the Port Harcourt conference room was heavier than Lagos, thick with the smell of damp carpet and old coffee. The AC struggled against the humidity, and a few of the ceiling panels had yellow stains from last season’s leaks. No one mentioned it. Elma joined by video from headquarters, her face on the large screen at the front of the room. Linda was on site to lead the first week, standing to the left of the screen with a laser pointer and a printed agenda. The room had forty-three staff members. Procurement, compliance, IT, and operations. Most were quiet. A few leaned back with arms crossed, watching to see if this was another corporate initiative that would fade in a month. Some were taking notes, pens moving fast. Those were the ones Elma focused on.Elma opened the session. Her voice was calm, but it carried through the speakers without distortion.“Good morning,” she said. “Thank y

8:00 AM — Floor 50March ended with the closure of Q1 reports. The first quarter of the year had been brutal, methodical, and, for once, predictable. No last-minute fires. No boardroom surprises. Just data, deadlines, and a system that had finally stopped making noise.Port Harcourt completed its six-week rollout on schedule. The final sign-off came in at 4:12 PM on March 28th, after the last training session wrapped up in the regional office. Final training completion was ninety-five percent. The remaining five percent were staff on medical leave or secondment. HR had their make-up sessions logged for April.No critical vendor issues were found. Three contracts had been terminated for non-compliance during week four. Two vendors had submitted corrected documentation forty-eight hours before the deadline. The rest were clean.Elma reviewed the consolidated dashboard with the team in the Floor 50 conference room. The big screen showed three regions side by side: Lagos, Abuja, Port Harc

8:00 AM — Abuja Regional OfficeMay 10th started with the scheduled quarterly audit for Abuja. The sky outside was overcast, the kind of weather that made the office lights feel too bright. Elma arrived at 7:42 AM to check the room setup before anyone else came in. Kemi was already there, testing the projector and the shared screen connection. Chinedu Okoro met Elma at the entrance at 7:58 AM with the audit file ready on his tablet. He looked less tense than he had in February. That was a good sign. “Everything is in the portal,” he said, shaking her hand. “No paper files this time. Even the old contracts. We scanned them in March.”Elma nodded. “Good. Paper disappears. The portal doesn’t.”The local team was assembled by 8:10 AM. Twelve people from procurement, compliance, and finance. Most had been through the rollout. They knew the drill now. No panic, no last-minute scrambling. That was the point of quarterly audits. They stopped being events and became checkpoints.Elma reviewe