Chapter 3 - Claire Holloway Drops the HammerThirty minutes later, the storm arrived in the form of Claire Holloway.
Claire was the Regional Director for the entire Midwest division of Crestline Dynamics. She rarely visited the Chicago branch unless an emergency audit or a major client crisis demanded her attention. When she strode off the elevator in her tailored trench coat, her heels clicked with rhythmic fury against the marble floor.
She marched straight past reception, ignored the frantic greetings of middle management, and headed directly for the open-plan bullpen.
That was when she noticed Ethan’s empty desk. The green plant was still there, but the man was gone.
Claire stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes swept across the room, landing on Derek Lawson, who was just stepping out of his office with a self-satisfied smirk, holding a cup of coffee.
“Who fired Ethan Cole?”
Her voice cracked across the office like a gunshot.
Every keyboard stopped. Every conversation died.
Derek blinked, momentarily caught off guard by the sheer frostiness in her tone. He straightened his tie and stepped forward, assuming this was his moment to impress the regional director with his ruthless efficiency.
“I did,” Derek said, puffing out his chest slightly.
Claire stared at him. The temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees.
“Do you have any idea who that man is?” Claire demanded, her voice trembling with restrained fury.
Derek chuckled, a dry, dismissive sound. “He was a senior operations analyst, Claire. A bottleneck. I’m modernizing the workflow. We don’t need old-school paper-pushers dragging down our quarterly velocity.”
“No,” Claire said, stepping so close to Derek that he instinctively took half a step back. “He was the only reason this company survived last winter.”
“He was an analyst—”
“He is Ethan Cole,” Claire interrupted, her voice echoing off the glass walls. “The founder of Crestline Dynamics. The majority shareholder. The man who owns this building, this floor, and the very desk you’re sitting at.”
Derek froze. His coffee cup slipped slightly in his grip, dark liquid sloshing over the rim and staining his expensive cuff.
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“Wh... what?” Derek stammered, the color draining entirely from his face. “That’s... that’s impossible. He drives an eleven-year-old Subaru. He wears clothes from a discount outlet. He sits in a regular cubicle!”
“Because he wanted to see how his company operated without people treating him like a bank account,” Claire hissed. She turned to the entire floor of stunned employees. “Pack your things, Derek. Your employment with Crestline Dynamics terminated about ten seconds ago. Security will escort you out.”
