DANIELLE'S POV

Everything was moving too fast; it was impossible to take in. Could they do this? The scene that was playing out in front of me attested that, yes, they really could. While I hadn't gone into the history of the company because it wasn't really part of my business, and I wasn't that interested, I believed the company had been set up by Jonathan. So who were these people threatening to remove him from his position?

I glanced at Jonathan, who had put on his poker face and was staring at the room. I couldn't imagine what was going through his head. Something he had worked his butt off for, for years, was being ripped out of his hands this easily. If I were in his position, I would have turned the entire place upside down.

My eyes went to the screen where the thumbnail was of Jonathan holding the guy he had battered, eyes crazy, and a fist to his face, and I shook my head. I never, in a million years, would have imagined that my cold, rigid, intense husband would have been caught in that kind of scenario. Also, who'd had the guts to share the wedding fight to the point that it had reached the board of directors? But with all that, it still made no sense that it was a reason to fire him. Even if the public had caught wind of that video, in my opinion, it wouldn't do much damage to the company since it wasn't Jonathan's reputation that was speaking for the company. The company's reputation was standing alone and speaking for itself.

"Wait." I heard myself say, and all heads turned to me. All except Jonathan. He was staring at the ballot box now. I stood up from my seat, where I had been watching it all unfold. My brain started screaming at me to sit back down, but it wasn't the first time I'd ignored the desperate scream.

"It doesn't make sense. As an employee of this company, I know this company has only come this far because of the person that was in charge. If there is any change in leadership, I can assure you that the company will feel it." Now, I'd gotten Jonathan's attention. "If you could reconsider. It's not like he did anything either of you have never done. And like you said, he's quite young, so it should be okay, even expected, for him to make a few mistakes. We all have that, mistakes."

As soon as I finished talking, they all turned back to what they had been doing, leaving just Jonathan staring, no, glaring at me. I took a deep breath and pursed my lips. I should have listened to my brain that was screaming at me to shut up. What exactly had I been thinking?

The directors finished voting. I wondered what had taken them that long, and they started piling it into the ballot box. I tensed as all the votes were collected and one of them began the compilation. After three minutes, I knew my words had either done harm or they hadn't listened to me at all because why had twelve votes been counted, and they were all in support of his dismissal?

The next vote was an X, and I had my hopes up only for them to be dashed as the next one came out as O. Including Jonathan, the people that voted were… thirty-four. If thirteen votes, now fourteen, were O, it meant we needed over fifteen votes as X. The X was probably Jonathan, so who else from this group of blood-sucking old people was on the side of logic? Most of the directors were smiling now, seeing that things were going in their favor. The number was now two O's and fifteen X's.

JONATHAN'S POV

"Congratulations. I don't know or why, but the dismissal request has been voted against." The chairman of the board said with clenched teeth and a fake smile, holding his hands out for a handshake.

I glanced at his hands and placed mine on the table, looking through the room. "I apologize for causing you unnecessary anxiety. I promise that going forward, I will refrain from activities that will put both the company and my reputation at stake. Thanks for taking the time to think of the good of the company. The meeting is over." I said and left the hall, going towards the elevator.

The elevator door opened, and Julia flinched. "Hi." She greeted. I didn't respond and pressed the button for my floor. She pushed the button to take her down, but I canceled it.

"We need to talk." I said simply as the elevator opened.

I stepped out of the elevator and turned to her. "What else do you need? For me to drag you out?"

She glared at me. "I'm not leaving this place. In case you're not aware. Some of us have things to do. That you suddenly feel at a loss of things to do doesn't mean that I'm as jobless as you are."

I mock frowned. "What are you talking about?"

She paled and shook her head. "What? What did I say?"

I smiled. She really shouldn't have said that. I'm sure the agreement she had was to pretend like she had no idea what had just happened, but I'd flustered her, and so, she had spilled, making the confirmation that she was the one behind it easy.

"We need to talk, don't we?" Without waiting for a reply, I left her and headed to my office. She knew better than to disregard that.

I entered my office with Julia trailing behind me, and I went to my seat. She remained by the door. "What do we need to talk about?" She asked rebelliously, and I smiled.

"You're fired."

She stared at me in shock. "What do you mean by that?"

"Don't play dumb, Julia. It doesn't look good on you. You think I've been keeping quiet all this while because I didn't know what you were up to? You've always struck me as suspicious, always being malicious to the other employees and behaving like you're their leader when you're in the same position as they are. Bullying the people that you felt would not easily submit to you, an example. My wife. Your constant presence in my office like you needed to check the place to fulfill your selfish desire. I was just waiting for the perfect excuse to get rid of you. You're fired. Go and pack your things up. I must not see you in this office by closing hours."

"But…that's…" She sputtered.

"Do you have something to say?" I asked, and she glared at me.

"Fine. Yes. I didn't like your wife, so I didn't want to be in the same place she was, but can you blame me? I'm your ex, and so it's expected that I act like that, but you cannot fire me. I'm an integral part of the company. You cannot find anyone else that is as knowledgeable as I am and knows how things are to be run. You put me in charge of operations, didn't you?"

I nodded. "And what has your progress been so far? Why do you think I've been so busy? Because for some reason, you've refused to do your job, and so I've had to be in charge of it. Take a look at your reports. Do you think anything has changed since you began here? Plus, I know you're the one in charge of what happened today. You threatened me that you were going to reveal the videos. I was a fool not to have taken you seriously and destroyed you on that spot, but guess what? Your plan didn't work. The board of directors didn't get their say."

I stood up and began pacing. "With how stupid you are, I know you couldn't have done it alone. Go and tell whoever is backing you up that no matter what they choose to do, it's not going to work, so you'd best go ahead and give up. But if you insist, there's nothing else I can do, but I promise you that what you want will not happen."

She glared at me and laughed. "You think nothing can happen to you, right? I'll prove to you that I can destroy you and all you own. I'd thought you were quite dumb, but I see you have some sense to yourself. I'm not going to stop until what I want is achieved, and that is your destruction. I'm going to destroy everything you own and everything you call yours and make sure you apologize to me and beg me to stop."

I smiled. "Sure. For now, though, you're fired. You're dismissed." I pointed at the door, and she walked to the door. She opened the door, and I heard someone groan in pain. I rushed to the door and pulled Danielle up, who had probably been about to knock when Julia had opened the door.

She removed my hand from her waist and turned to look at Julia as she entered the elevator. "What happened?"

"Ignore her. Are you okay?" I asked, checking if she had been injured.

She nodded. "I'm fine. The door just hit me lightly."

We stared at each other in silence before I pointed at my office. "Did you have something you wanted to say?"

As if she had forgotten herself, she flinched. "Oh, yes. I came to give you the minutes of the meeting." She picked the file that was on the floor and handed it to me.

I collected the document from her. "Thanks. That was fast."

She shrugged. "I need to get back." She turned back and glanced at me for a few seconds. "Congratulations" She said softly, and I nodded.

"Thank you."

She nodded and left the office, closing the door behind her, and with one last look at the door, I went to my seat. As I sat down, my phone started ringing. I dropped the document I was still holding and picked up the phone, stuck between letting it ring and picking up the call.

I picked it up and placed the phone to my ear. "Hey, Dad."

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