Chapter 6 - The Press Release
The transition of power was swift and brutal.
On a rainy Tuesday morning, I walked into the headquarters of Vale Hospitality.
I wasn’t wearing the soft pastel dresses Dominic had always preferred me in.
I wore a sharp, tailored navy suit. My hair was pulled back. I looked like a woman who owned the building.
Because I did.
As I walked through the lobby, employees stopped and stared.
Whispers followed me into the elevator.
That’s the ex-wife.
I heard she took everything.
I heard she’s the new CEO.
I stepped into the glass-walled boardroom on the top floor.
The entire board of directors was waiting for me. They looked nervous, like school children waiting for the principal.
Richard Vance stood up.
“Evelyn. Welcome back.”
I didn’t shake his hand. I walked straight to the head of the table—the seat Dominic had occupied for seven years—and sat down.
“Let’s get to work,” I said.
Over the next four hours, I gutted the company.
I fired every executive who had been complicit in Dominic’s fraud.
I canceled the inflated contracts.
I rebranded the holding company, removing the name "Vale" completely.
From now on, it would be called Maya Holdings.
When the press release went out that afternoon, it sent shockwaves through the financial district.
EVELYN VALE TAKES CONTROL AS CEO, REBRANDS COMPANY AFTER HISTORIC CORPORATE COUP.
I was packing up my briefcase when my assistant knocked on the glass door.
“Ms. Vale? There is a man in the lobby demanding to see you. Security is holding him.”
I didn’t even need to ask.
“Send him up,” I said. “But keep security with him.”
Five minutes later, Dominic was pushed into the boardroom.
He looked utterly broken. The motel life had aged him ten years in a month.
He stared at me, sitting in his chair, in his office, running his empire.
“You took it all,” he choked out.
“I took what was mine,” I corrected him.
“My name is off the building, Evelyn. My legacy is gone.”
I stood up and leaned over the mahogany table.
“Your legacy was built on my math, Dominic. Your legacy was a lie. I just corrected the equation.”
He looked at me with eyes that were hollow, devoid of the arrogant man I had once loved.
“What am I supposed to do now?” he asked, pathetic and small.
“That is no longer my problem,” I said, picking up my briefcase.
I walked past him.
May you like
“Goodbye, Dominic.”
I didn’t look back.
