All Chapters of I'm The Thorn Stuck In The Billionaire Celebrity's Foot: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

"They'll ask you first if the notebook is authentic," Reagan said, pacing a tight line in front of the boardroom doors at seven fifty-five, tablet clutched to her chest like a shield. "Then they'll ask if it's admissible. Then they'll ask if it matters, because half this board has known Julian Vane longer than they've known you, Sterling, and old loyalty doesn't die just because the evidence says it should.""It'll matter." Sterling's voice was steady despite the hollows under his eyes, three sleepless nights catching up to him all at once. "Handwriting analysis confirmed it's my father's. The DA's office has a copy. Whatever the board decides this morning, the investigation doesn't stop because they vote a certain way.""It stops feeling urgent to them if they vote the wrong way," Reagan said grimly. "And urgency is the only thing keeping the DA's office moving this fast."Ivy stood off to the side in a blazer Reagan had produced from somewhere at six that morning, notebook in a seal

Ivy hadn't planned on saying it out loud, not yet, not with everything else on fire, but sitting across from Sterling three nights later, watching him stare at a spreadsheet of shareholder percentages like it might rearrange itself if he glared hard enough, something in her decided the moment couldn't wait any longer."I want to go back to school," she said.Sterling looked up, surprise flickering across his face, softening the tension there for the first time in hours. "For what.""Design. Graphic design, specifically. I did some of it years ago, freelance, before everything with my father happened and I had to pick up whatever paid fastest instead of whatever I actually wanted." Ivy pulled her knees up onto the couch, suddenly nervous in a way that had nothing to do with Trent or Julian or any of the last two weeks. "I looked at a certificate program today. Evenings, six months, affordable even without your money involved.""You don't have to do it without my money.""I know I don't

The courthouse smelled like every government building Ivy had ever set foot in, floor wax and old paper and something underneath it that felt like nine years of other people's worst days, and she sat in the front row with her hands clasped so tight her knuckles had gone white, waiting for a judge to decide whether her father got to come home.Sterling wasn't beside her. He'd wanted to be, had argued about it the night before until Ivy reminded him, gently, that the shareholder vote needed him in that boardroom more than she needed him in this one, and that she'd survived every other hard thing in her life without him standing over her shoulder."Text me the second you know anything," he'd said, kissing her forehead at six that morning, "and I promise I'll be here the moment the vote's done."The hearing took forty minutes that felt like four hours, her father's lawyer presenting the notebook, the handwriting analysis, Marcus Webb's original statement before the coercion, all of it lai

The board announced Trent's official appointment as co-CEO three days later, a press release full of careful corporate language about balanced leadership and governance best practices that made Ivy's stomach turn every time she read it.Sterling took the news with a controlled, dangerous calm that worried Ivy more than open fury would have."He'll want an office on this floor," Sterling said, staring out the window of the office that had been solely his for six years. "Access to everything. A seat at every meeting I take.""Can you work with him," Ivy asked. "Actually work with him, not just tolerate him.""I don't have a choice. The board's decided, and fighting it publicly right now, with my father freshly out on bail and every reporter in the city watching for signs of instability, would hand Trent exactly the ammunition he needs to push for full removal next quarter." Sterling's jaw was tight, controlled fury simmering just beneath the surface. "So I smile. I share information I d

Ivy didn't tell Sterling right away. She turned the request over for two full days, watching him fight fires on every front, the safe house relocation, Trent's continued presence in the office next to his, Julian's silence somehow louder than his threats had been, and decided some fights were hers to walk into alone.Trent's office, when she finally agreed to the meeting, looked exactly like she expected, expensive and cold and staged for maximum effect, and he greeted her with the same easy, oily smile from the gala, like grabbing her arm and threatening her boyfriend's career had never happened at all."I'll get straight to it," Trent said, gesturing her into a chair she didn't take. "You should know I didn't build this takeover from nothing, Ms. Calloway. I had help identifying exactly where Sterling was vulnerable, and exactly when to move.""Julian.""Initially." Trent's smile sharpened. "Though I'll admit, once I understood how deep the family dysfunction actually ran, I realize