Chapter 1 - THE SLAP THAT STOPPED THE GALA
“What is funny?”
Jason’s voice carried through the ballroom microphone.
I looked at the man I had been married to for nine years.
He stood between me and his pregnant mistress as though I were the intruder.
Madison still wore the smug smile of a woman who believed pregnancy had made her untouchable.
I reached into my purse.
Jason’s eyes narrowed.
“What are you doing?”
“Giving you exactly what you asked for.”
I stepped forward.
Madison tilted her face toward me.
She expected hesitation.
I slapped her.
The sound cracked across the ballroom.
Madison stumbled sideways and fell against the edge of the stage.
Several executives gasped.
Someone dropped a champagne glass.
Jason lunged toward me.
Two security officers caught him before he crossed three feet.
“Let me go!”
“She attacked a pregnant woman!”
I looked toward Madison.
She was shocked.
Embarrassed.
But fully conscious and already sitting upright.
I had struck her face.
Not her stomach.
Security had also captured her hitting me first.
Jason continued struggling.
“I’m divorcing you tonight!”
“That won’t be necessary.”
I removed a sealed envelope from my purse.
Then I threw it against his chest.
The divorce papers slid across the stage.
Jason looked down.
His name appeared beneath the petition.
My signature was dated that morning.
“You filed already?”
“I filed before breakfast.”
His confidence vanished.
Madison stared at him.
“You said she would never leave.”
Jason ignored her.
“Rebecca, we can discuss this privately.”
“No.”
“You made it public.”
At that exact moment, the ballroom doors opened.
My chief of staff, Evelyn Hart, entered carrying a leather portfolio.
She walked through the silent crowd and stopped beside me.
“Ms. Sullivan,” she said clearly.
“Should we still authorize the one-point-four-billion-dollar investment?”
Jason’s face went white.
Several board members stood.
The company’s chairman, Richard Caldwell, looked from Evelyn to me.
“What investment?”
Evelyn handed him the preliminary agreement.
Sullivan Capital intended to acquire a strategic position in Caldwell Technologies and finance its international expansion.
The proposed investment had been the foundation of the board’s five-year growth plan.
Only a small executive committee knew the investor’s identity.
Jason had never been part of that committee.
He only knew a private investment firm was preparing to transform the company.
He had spent months bragging that his sales division had attracted the money.
In reality, I had initiated the negotiations before discovering his affair.
Richard read the signature page.
“Rebecca Sullivan?”
Jason looked at me.
“Your maiden name.”
“My legal business name.”
Madison slowly stood.
“You’re Sullivan Capital?”
“I own it.”
A murmur rolled through the ballroom.
Jason shook his head.
“That’s impossible.”
“You told me your family’s money was gone.”
“My family’s retail company was sold.”
“I used my share to build something of my own.”
For fifteen years, Sullivan Capital had invested in healthcare systems, logistics firms, software companies, and manufacturing networks.
I kept my public profile limited.
Jason believed my business travel involved charity boards and small family investments.
He had never asked questions unless he expected money.
Richard looked shaken.
“Is the deal canceled?”
I met his eyes.
“It is suspended.”
Jason pulled free from one security officer.
“You cannot punish six thousand employees because of our marriage.”
“I’m not.”
I looked toward the board.
“I am protecting them from an executive who used company resources to hide an affair, promoted his mistress, and created false sales records to justify his own advancement.”
Jason stopped breathing.
He had not known I discovered the altered numbers.
The divorce was only the first document waiting inside my purse.
May you like
The second was an audit report.
And according to Evelyn, federal investigators were already downstairs.
