Chapter 1 - THE FLIGHT THAT NEVER LEFT
I made it three steps down the jet stairs before Captain Reynolds hurried after me.
“Mrs. Sterling.”
I turned.
Behind him, through the open cabin door, I could see Carter still sitting beside Khloe as though nothing had happened.
The captain lowered his voice.
“Ma’am, should we cancel the flight?”
The question carried through the cabin anyway.
Every executive heard it.
Khloe’s smile vanished.
Carter stood so fast his knee struck the table.
“What does he mean, cancel?”
Captain Reynolds looked uncomfortable.
“The flight authorization belongs to Ashbourne Aviation Holdings.”
Carter stared at him.
“So?”
The captain glanced at me.
“She controls Ashbourne Aviation Holdings.”
Silence.
My mother-in-law, Evelyn, pushed into the aisle.
“That’s ridiculous. This is Sterling Technologies’ plane.”
“No,” I said calmly. “Sterling Technologies has permission to use it.”
Carter came down two steps.
“Samantha, don’t be dramatic.”
I pulled out my phone.
“I’m not.”
Then I opened the aviation management app.
At the bottom of the screen was a simple option:
REVOKE CHARTER AUTHORIZATION.
Carter saw it.
His face changed.
“You wouldn’t.”
I tapped it.
A notification appeared immediately.
FLIGHT AUTHORIZATION SUSPENDED.
Captain Reynolds nodded.
“Understood.”
Then he turned toward the cabin.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated while ground transportation is arranged.”
Forty executives stared at Carter.
The CEO who had just ordered his wife to row five suddenly no longer had a plane.
Carter stepped toward me.
“You’re humiliating me in front of my entire company.”
I smiled.
“You told me to know my place.”
“Over a seat?”
“No.”
I looked at Khloe.
“Over everything that seat represented.”
His phone rang.
He answered angrily.
“What?”
The voice on the other end spoke so loudly I heard it from three feet away.
It was Daniel Brooks, Sterling’s chief financial officer.
“Carter, we have a problem with the quarterly audit.”
Carter’s expression hardened.
“What problem?”
Daniel paused.
“Someone has been paying millions of dollars from Sterling to a company that doesn’t exist on our approved vendor list.”
I stopped walking.
Carter went still.
Daniel continued.
“The payments were authorized from your executive account.”
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And the receiving company was registered to a name I knew very well.
Khloe Bennett.
