Chapter 66 Adeline
Adeline's POV
A distraction, right. This bitch really looked right at me and called me a pet. Percy, entirely oblivious to the shades, checked his watch. "Vanessa, let’s debrief in my office in ten minutes. I want to go over the transition plan."
"Of course," she smiled warmly at him. "Just like old times."
Percy squeezed my waist. "I’ll see you at lunch, baby."
The crowd of admirers began to disperse, drifting back to their desks, leaving Vanessa and I standing alone in the center of the aisle.
The moment Percy was out of earshot, Vanessa’s warm smile vanished, replaced by a deep boredom.
"TechStar, huh?" she asked, adjusting the strap of her bag. "That’s a big account for a junior associate. Let alone one who..."
"Who what?" My icy tone didn't stop her from letting her eyes rake over me one last time.
"Well, I suppose it helps to have the owner proofreading your work in bed. I look forward to seeing what you can do, Adeline. Try not to break anything while I get settled."
Without waiting for a response, she turned on her heel and glided away while I stood there with my fists clenched at my sides.
I took a deep breath, letting the anger settle in my chest before turning back to my office. I sat down in my chair and stared blindly at the TechStar files.
I had survived a lot of violence, but this was a different kind of warfare. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and opened Instagram. If I was going to be working across a threat, it was my right to know what I was dealing with. After all, knowing your enemy was half the battle.
I typed Vanessa Sterling into the search bar. Her profile was public, of course, and an absolute grid of perfection, too. There were photos of her in expensive suits outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, sipping champagne in lounges and attending elite charity galas.
I scrolled down, expecting to find quotes or signs of a woman pining for the billionaire boss she couldn't have, but that wasn't what I found at all.
Three rows down was a stunning, professionally shot photo of Vanessa in a backless evening gown, leaning against the chest of a ridiculously handsome man in a tuxedo.
The caption read: Two years of putting up with me. Happy anniversary to the only man who can keep up. @JulianVance.
I clicked on his tag to get to his page. Julian Vance is a managing director at a top-tier hedge fund. His own page was filled with photos of the two of them either skiing in Aspen, sailing in Monaco, or smiling like the ultimate New York power couple.
I locked my phone and set it face down on the desk. That was not what I was expecting at all. I didn't know how to feel about the fact that she was not a scorned lover; she just didn't like me for him. She genuinely thought I didn't fit in her circle.
To her, Percy’s firm was something she had the right to, but not me. I'm sure she already knew of my background. To Vanessa, I only got this job because of my relationship with Percy, so I was undeserving.
Over the next three days, I began to see Vanessa's work in progress. It didn't happen all at once. It started with the paralegals. Lauren, who usually dropped whatever she was doing to pull case files for me, was suddenly swamped every time I approached her desk.
"I’m so sorry, Adeline," she said on Wednesday, not meeting my eyes as she aggressively stapled a stack of briefs. "Vanessa has me running point on the Vanguard integration. She’s incredibly particular about her formatting. I won't have time for the TechStar documents until tomorrow."
"That’s fine, Lauren. I can pull them myself," I replied, keeping my voice perfectly even.
Then it was Marcus, who usually ate lunch with me in the breakroom. He suddenly started taking his salads at his desk. When I asked him a quick question about a case, he gave me a one-word answer and immediately put his headphones back on.
I was being isolated, and she didn't even have to raise or use her voice at all. She got them on her side by ordering expensive coffee for everyone or ordering a cake for someone's birthday. Bit by bit, she shifted focus from me.
I couldn't go whining to my man about it either because Percy was tied up in endless closed-door meetings with the senior partners, finalizing the Vanguard acquisition. Whenever he emerged, he would stop by my office, press a kiss to my temple, and ask how TechStar was going.
"It’s going great," I would lie with a bright smile. Also, complaining to him would only be proving Vanessa’s point that I was not cut out for her world, so I knew I had to do this on my own.
On Thursday afternoon, the caffeine headache I had been fighting all morning finally won. I pushed away from my desk and grabbed my empty mug. and headed toward the kitchenette. As I approached the frosted door, I heard voices.
"It’s just concerning, Richard. That’s all." I stopped in my tracks when I heard Vanessa’s voice. The Richard she was talking to was her own uncle, who also happened to be one of the oldest senior partners in the firm.
"Percy is the owner, Vanessa," her uncle’s voice rumbled. "He can assign the TechStar merger to whoever he pleases."
"And as senior associate, it’s my job to protect the firm’s holdings." Vanessa countered smoothly with a false concern in her voice. "I’ve looked over some of her preliminary filings, Uncle Richard. They are exactly what you would expect from someone with her background. Nobody would blame me for not handling something that huge well. Her only good point was that she managed to catch Percy’s eye."
"Percy says she’s brilliant."
Vanessa let out a soft laugh. "Uncle, Percy is thinking with his heart or something lower. I love Percy; you know I do. He also loves this firm that he built from the ground up, but he’s letting his personal life blind his business sense. It’s an insult to every associate in this building who put in the eighty-hour weeks to get here. She didn't earn that account. She got it by wearing his ring."
My stomach rolled at her blatant accusation.
"Just... keep an eye on it," her uncle sighed. "If she fumbles TechStar, the board will have to step in. Percy’s ownership doesn't protect him from a malpractice suit."
"Don't worry," Vanessa purred. "I’m going to make sure the firm is protected. I’ll oversee her final drafts myself."
The sound of high heels clicking against the floor signaled she was moving toward the door. I scrambled backward, practically lunging into the copy room across the hall just as the kitchenette door swung open.
Through the crack in the door, I watched Vanessa walk past, her face smug at the result of getting what she wanted.