All Chapters of Conflict of Interest: Chapter 1 - Chapter 4

If Kaelnino Nathaniel de Cruz doesn’t show up in the next two minutes, I’m selling his family’s oil company on Craigslist.I haven’t decided on the price yet. Maybe two hundred dollars and a pack of Marlboros, just to make it insulting.“Maya.”I looked up from my tablet and found Mr. Harrison, the nearly sixty-year-old CFO who had been working for the de Cruz family since before I was legally old enough to drink, staring at me from across a conference table roughly the length of a rich man’s list of sins.“What?”“Don’t sell the company.”“I haven’t hit post yet.”“Good.”“Because I’m still choosing the pics.”Two people beside him fought back smiles. Mr. Harrison rubbed his temple.The conference room on the forty-seventh floor of Cruz Petroleum was already packed with eleven people whose schedules were probably worth more than my apartment, three screens displaying the quarterly presentation, coffee that had started going cold, and one empty chair at the head of the table because t

Five years later.“I swear, if that couch scratches the floor, I’m putting all of you in a class-action lawsuit.”Both movers stopped at the same time.One of them was still holding the end of a cream-colored sofa that had cost an offensive amount of money, while the other looked at me like he was trying to decide whether I was joking. I didn’t help by smiling.“Ma’am, we’re being careful.”“Good. I’m also very reasonable before property damage happens.”From the foyer, Tara let out a small laugh.Our new house still looked like a furniture catalog had suffered a minor explosion. Boxes filled half the living room, several paintings were leaning against the walls because I hadn’t decided whether I wanted to hang them or sell them to fund therapy after this move, and the dining table had arrived without two of its chairs because apparently New York also struggled with the concept of a complete set.I stood in the middle of all of it wearing black leggings, a white T-shirt I’d half-tucke