Chapter 146 First move

Chapter 146 First move
Elma's POV

I got to the office earlier, ready to go over the Hendricks paperwork one more time before my first meeting. I pressed the intercom on my desk out of habit, taking a sip from my coffee.

"Rachel, can you bring me the Hendricks file?"
Nothing…. I got no response. A few seconds passed, and I pressed it again, frowning when she remained quiet. This was unlike her, she always answered immediately.
The door opened instead of the intercom answering, and Marcus from legal stepped in, holding a folder against his chest.

"Where's Rachel?" I asked.
He hesitated. "She's not coming in today, Ms. Michael. She resigned yesterday evening."
I set my coffee down slowly. "She what?"
"She resigned… Effective immediately." He glanced at the folder in his hands like he wished it held better news. "David from development did too."
My brows furrowed in confusion. Rachel had been my second-in-command for three years, the one person who knew this company almost as well as I did. David ran half our active development projects. Losing either of them, I could deal with it but losing both in the same night wasn't a coincidence.

"Do you know why?" I kept my voice level, though it took effort.
"I made a few calls this morning." Marcus said, shifting the folder. "Both of them were offered positions at Cole Enterprises. Rachel's coming in as VP of Operations. David's heading up their entire development division." He paused. "Significant pay increases. Equity packages too, from what I could gather."

I stared at him, my jaw tightening, the coffee in front of me suddenly the last thing I cared about.
"Adrian Cole," I said, more to myself than to him.
"That would be my guess, yes."
Of course it would be him. He hadn't wasted any time making good on his promise and the fact that he'd gone straight for the two people I trusted most rather than just poaching some junior staff for optics, told me exactly how deliberate this was.

I pressed my palms flat against the desk, forcing myself to breathe evenly before I said something I'd regret in front of him.
"Fine," I said finally. "We'll manage. What's on my schedule for today?"
Marcus hesitated again, and that hesitation told me there was more.
"What else," I said, sharper this time.
"I also wanted to flag something before your calls start coming in." He opened the folder in his hands. "Two of your major backers reached out to our office late last night. Whitfield Capital and the Bennett family trust."

"What did they want?"
"They're pulling their support from the Marlow Street development." He said it plainly, no dressing it up. "Whitfield cited concerns about regulatory exposure after the Wexford story broke. Said they need to reassess their risk position before committing further capital to any of your active projects."
My stomach dropped. Whitfield had backed three of my last four major deals. Losing them wasn't a minor setback, it was a hole I didn't know how I'd fill in time to keep Marlow Street on schedule.

"And the Bennetts?"
"Similar language. They mentioned wanting to, quote, wait and see how the compliance situation resolves before extending further trust."
Trust….The word landed harder than I wanted it to. I'd built relationships with both of those families over years, very careful and deliberate work. Dinners and phone calls and favors traded back and forth, and all of it was apparently worth exactly as much as my most recent headline.

I suddenly understood why he hadn't needed to do anything else. He didn't need to manufacture a single lie. He'd just needed to make sure the right people remembered what I'd already done myself and let my own reputation do the rest of the work for him.
"Did anyone say Adrian reached out to them directly?" I asked.
"Nobody said that explicitly." Marcus chose his words carefully. "But he sits on the board of two funds that co-invest alongside both Whitfield and the Bennetts. It wouldn't take much, maybe a conversation over dinner or a passing comment about liability." He shrugged. "Nothing anyone could ever prove."

I sat back in my chair, my mind already racing through contingencies, who else I could call, what I could restructure and how much runway I actually had left on Marlow Street without that capital. But underneath all of it sat something heavier, something I didn't want to examine too closely in front of Marcus.

I'd hit him where it hurt, and I'd told myself it was fair, that he'd started it, that I was simply matching his energy.
He'd hit back with precision I hadn't accounted for and he hadn't even needed to lie to do it.
"Thank you, Marcus." I kept my voice steady and professional, though my hands had curled into fists beneath the desk where he couldn't see them. "Get me everyone's contact information. Rachel, David, Whitfield, the Bennetts….All of it."

"Right away." He hesitated at the door. "Is there anything else you need?"
I need this to stop, I thought, though I'd sooner burn the building down than say it out loud.
"No," I said instead. "That's all."

He left and I sat alone in the quiet of my office, staring at the closed door. My jaws tightened involuntarily. I really hated that guy.
My phone suddenly buzzed against the desk. I glanced down, already dreading whatever else the morning had planned for me.

Meet me at the park. The one with the fountain….I miss you❤️.

I stared at the message for a second, my chest loosening despite everything else sitting on it.
Not everyone in my life was working against me. At least Daniel still was exactly who he'd always been… steady and uncomplicated. He was the only thing I had outside work.

I typed back a quick reply, a small, genuine smile finding its way onto my face for the first time all morning, before setting the phone down.