To vet my wife's competence, my father had arranged for me to conduct a surprise audit of the company she managed. I genuinely thought it would be a formality, a quiet walk-through. Instead, the moment I stepped onto the floor, I saw a baby-faced college guy staring, mesmerized, at the paper shredder. “Whoa, this thing is so cool,” he mumbled. He reached for a stack of documents on a nearby desk, looking ready to feed them into the machine. A colleague next to him went white as a ghost and lunged forward. “My God, my little prince, I thought you were playing video games in the CEO’s office! Why are you out here?” The guy just grinned. “Heh, I got thirsty.” As he spoke, his hand holding a full cup of water slipped, splashing the entire contents directly onto the main power switch. The entire office floor went black. A collective wail of despair rose from the workstations. I grabbed the nearest intern and quietly demanded to know who in God’s name had hired that imbecile. The intern immediately clamped a finger to his lips. “Lower your voice, man. He’s, like, our CEO Sloane Albright’s partner. Word is, this whole company is technically his.” “You must be new. You’ll get used to it. He usually just plays games in the CEO’s office and doesn't bother us.” My temples began to throb. If he was the CEO’s partner, then what the hell was I? I pulled out my phone and called my father. “Dad, you can cancel the inspection. Tell Sloane Albright to come back here and bring the divorce papers.” 1 My father sent me to the branch to evaluate Sloane Albright. He said it was a routine check, nothing to stress about, just a chance to get an early feel for the operations. I assumed it was purely for show. I checked in with the front desk as a corporate reviewer from Headquarters, and the assistant politely swiped me through the secured access. The second I entered the main office, I saw him. He was dressed in an almost aggressively casual white button-down, a little too young for the setting, and was crouched in front of a heavy-duty shredder with an expression of pure, childlike fascination. “Wow, this machine is so cool. Can it eat anything?” He reached over and casually picked up a file from a nearby desk. I caught a glimpse of the cover: "MERGER AGREEMENT," stamped in bright red. Without a second thought, he started to push the thick document toward the hungry teeth of the shredder. A bespectacled colleague next to him instantly turned a sickly shade of gray. He flew across the cubicle and nearly body-checked the younger man, snatching the contract out of his hands just in time. “My sweet Lord, weren’t you supposed to be in the office playing your games?” His voice was thin with terror. “Why did you come out? We need this contract for the presentation this afternoon!” The younger man was mildly annoyed by the collision, but didn’t seem angry. He just grinned, shaking an empty, disposable cup. “Got bored with the game. Got thirsty.” The colleague visibly sagged with relief, clutching the document to his chest as if it were his own beating heart. He lowered his voice, the tone almost a plea. “Then please, please, go get your water. I’m begging you. Go back and drink it in the office, okay? Doesn’t the CEO’s suite have its own dispenser?” The guy rubbed his nose. “The water in there tastes weird. I want the water out here.” He walked off toward the communal kitchen, completely ignoring the colleague’s near-sobbing expression. My temples were hammering. I caught the eye of a young intern standing near me. “Who is he?” The intern glanced at me, then quickly checked the guy’s retreating back, his eyes full of fear. He put a finger to his lips, shushing me. “Keep it down, man.” He leaned in, his voice barely a whisper. “That’s our CEO Sloane Albright’s partner. Name’s Brody Jennings.” My heart seized. Sloane’s recent abnormal behavior—the late nights, the sudden secretiveness—it all clicked into a terrifying explanation. The intern continued, his face etched with a maturity beyond his years. “I heard the company technically belongs to him, so he’s the real boss here.” “You just started, right? You’ll get used to it.” He sighed, an expression of crushing corporate exhaustion. “He usually stays locked in the CEO’s private office, playing games or watching TV. He doesn’t interact with us.” “Sloane must be away at a meeting today, and he got bored enough to come out and wander.” The buzzing in my head intensified. He was the CEO’s partner. So what am I? The intern saw the look on my face and asked with concern, “You alright, man? You look sick.” I shook my head, managing a tight smile. “No, I’m fine. Just… surprised.” “A company can have someone like that here. I’m truly… enlightened.” The intern shrugged bitterly. “Just live with it. He never actually does anything. We just keep our heads down and pray he gets tired and goes back inside.” I didn’t reply. Never actually does anything? If that contract had been shredded, a multi-million-dollar deal would have collapsed. Who would have taken the fall for that loss? I watched Brody Jennings emerge from the kitchen, humming a tune. I pulled out my phone, intending to call my father, but paused. No. Walking away now would be letting Sloane off too easily. My father sent me to evaluate her competence. Now I knew that her competence, and her character, were catastrophic failures. I needed to see just how far this branch had descended under her management. I straightened my jacket and walked back to the front desk. “Hi. I’m Cameron Montgomery, the Project Reviewer from Headquarters.” “Please set me up with a temporary workspace, preferably somewhere quiet. And this review is internal. I don’t want Ms. Albright to know I was here.” The receptionist nodded respectfully. I took a corner seat in the main office and fixed my gaze on Brody Jennings. He was now holding his cup of water and curiously inspecting the fire alarm on the wall, looking like he was debating whether or not to press the red button. 2 Sloane was out for the morning. Brody must have finally maxed out on video games. He drifted out of the executive suite again, a storm cloud of corporate disruption. He strolled the floor, idly poking at one colleague’s half-finished design sketch, then tapping on another’s keyboard, generating a stream of garbled code. Everyone held their breath when he approached, unable to speak, rushing to check their work for damage the moment he passed. He ambled to the water cooler, grabbed a paper cup, and filled it up. Whether from clumsiness or intention, his hand twitched. The entire cup of water, full to the brim, arced through the air and splashed precisely onto the wall next to the dispenser. That wall housed the main power switch for the entire floor. There was a loud sizzle and a spray of blue-white sparks. The overhead fluorescent lights died instantly. Every single computer monitor in the office went black, a silent, sickening wave of darkness. A few seconds later, the office exploded in a chorus of agony and curses of pure despair. “My code! All morning on this code! I didn’t save!” “My design draft! The client is waiting! The last, crucial step!” “My quarterly report! Due at two! I’m ruined, we’re all ruined!” The Head of Tech, Luke, sprinted out of his office. He saw the wreckage—and Brody Jennings standing there, looking perfectly innocent—and his face turned to stone. Luke’s lips tightened, his fist clenched and unclenched, and he finally swallowed whatever he was about to say. Brody, however, spoke first, his voice dripping with annoyance. “What’s the matter with this place?” “This switch is so cheap. It broke just from a little water. Why is everything in this company such low quality?” His talent for immediate and total blame deflection was truly astonishing. The Administrative Manager rushed over. He looked at the smoking power switch, then at Brody. Immediately, he adopted an overly obsequious smile. “Brody, are you hurt? Did that frighten you?” “It’s not your fault at all. It must be old wiring. We’ll fix it right away. I’m calling someone to replace it with a new, waterproof one!” “Please, go back to the office and rest. We’ll handle this.” Brody pouted, still dissatisfied, but finally turned and retreated to Sloane’s suite. The manager wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and began organizing the emergency repairs. As he walked past, I stopped him. “Sir, does this sort of thing happen often?” He recognized me as the guy from Headquarters, and a look of bitter defeat crossed his face. He pulled me into the stairwell of the fire escape, lowering his voice. “You’re the reviewer, right? There are things I shouldn’t say, but after today…” He sighed heavily. “The truth is, he’s Ms. Albright’s darling. We can’t touch him.” “Sloane is out of town today, so there’s no one to keep him in check.” “Normally, when she’s here, she at least keeps him locked up in her office…” His face was a mask of despair. “Last time, he ‘accidentally’ knocked over a cup of coffee.” “That coffee landed directly on our core server rack.” “All our company data was scrambled. The tech team worked nonstop for a full week to recover it. A week of everyone’s work, gone!” “And what happened then?” I asked. “Ms. Albright said the tech department was negligent, that the server was placed in a hazardous location. She docked our entire department’s quarterly bonus.” “She said it was a lesson for us to be more mindful.” My heart sank, inch by bitter inch. This was Sloane’s management. She enables an idiot to run rampant through a multi-million-dollar company, and then forces all the hardworking, diligent employees to pay the price for his stupidity. Sloane Albright, you are incredible. Just then, the door to the GM’s office creaked open. Brody poked his head out and yelled to the dark office. “I’m bored! Why is the power still out? My phone is almost dead! Are there any snacks in the kitchen?” No one answered. The only sound in the entire office was a suffocating, absolute silence. 3 The moment the engineers restored the power, my father called. He needed a core market data file. He said the Group Board needed the document that afternoon and that I must handle it personally, without any mistakes. I copied the data onto a drive from the Market Director and headed to the print room. I had just finished collating the document and clipped the pages together when the door burst open. Brody Jennings sauntered in, holding a can of Coke. His eyes lit up when he saw the heavy-duty stapler on the table next to my files. “Hey, let me borrow that. My chip bag tore open.” He reached out, his hand instinctively going for the stapler. I instinctively shielded the confidential documents and the stapler, pulling them back just out of his reach. His hand met empty air. His momentum sent him stumbling, and his foot caught on a power cord. The can of Coke slipped from his grip. The brown liquid flew in a perfect, precise arc, landing squarely on the stack of top-secret documents I had just printed. The thick pile of A4 paper was instantly soaked, turning the pages into a pulpy, ruined mess. Watching the destruction of the file, I finally lost my detached composure. I looked up, my gaze locking onto Brody’s face. He showed no remorse, only irritation that I hadn't loaned him the stapler. My voice was flat and cold. “Can you cover the financial loss of this document?” Brody had probably never been questioned with such cold authority by a mere employee before. He paused, then his face flushed with rage. “How dare you talk to me like that?” “Do you even know who I am?” He puffed out his chest, his indignation righteous. “I’m the CEO’s husband!” I stared at him, feeling nothing but a profound, cold amusement. “Oh?” I asked calmly. “So the CEO’s partner is free to destroy company property? Free to ignore all our rules and regulations?” My retort clearly challenged his invented authority. He became frantic, pointing a finger directly at my chest. “Of course, I can!” “This company belongs to Sloane, which means it belongs to me! I can do whatever I want!” “Who the hell are you? Some new guy trying to lecture me?” Colleagues who had heard the commotion were now watching from the doorway, too terrified to move. A few administrative staff were tugging at my sleeve, their eyes pleading with me to just apologize and back down. I didn't move. I simply held his gaze. Brody, feeling his public pride slip away, pulled out his phone, a sneer of triumph on his face. “Fine, you want to play tough? You think I can’t handle you?” “I’ll let your boss tell you exactly who I am and who you are!” He immediately video-called Sloane Albright. The call connected almost instantly. He turned the screen toward himself, waiting for his protector to appear. 4 The second the video connected, Brody’s voice became shrill and loud. He aimed the phone at his face, his voice full of manufactured indignation. “Sloane! What kind of company are you running? A new employee is trying to bully me!” “I just wanted to borrow a stapler, and he refused. Then he ruined the documents himself and tried to blame me, even threatening to hit me!” “If it wasn’t for you, I would have fought him already.” He twisted the truth completely, playing the victim of a colossal injustice. From the other end of the video, Sloane’s voice came, soothing and gentle. “Don’t be angry, sweetheart. Your wife is here. No one can bully you. I’ll handle it.” I could see her in a solemn conference room, the corporate logo prominent behind her. She was clearly at an industry summit crucial to the company’s future. But she had just stopped a critical meeting for this man. “Hand the phone over to him.” Sloane’s tone snapped from gentle to icy. She was speaking to the space behind Brody, toward all the employees, her voice a chilling command. “Who upset my Brody?” “Give the phone to him. I’ll speak to the person myself. I want to see who has the nerve.” Brody’s face broke into a triumphant smile. He shoved the phone at me, his chin raised high, his eyes full of provocation and victory. I calmly took the phone. My face came into sharp focus on the screen. Sloane saw me and her composure crumbled. A flicker of panic crossed her face. “Cameron? What are you doing there?” Her brows furrowed tightly, as if my presence was merely a bothersome complication. “Don’t get upset! Wait until I get back, and I’ll explain everything!” I looked at the familiar face on the screen, the face I had once believed would be mine forever. In that moment, she felt utterly alien and pitifully ridiculous. Seeing my cold silence, her tone grew impatient, bordering on a threat. “Don’t be ridiculous, Cameron. I’m in a crucial meeting. The future of the company rests on this summit.” She had reduced everything to me being "ridiculous." Her stupidity and moral bankruptcy finally broke my calm. I nearly laughed. I leaned into the camera and spoke, my voice sharp and cutting. “Perfect, Sloane.” “Your competence, your leadership—I’m done with the evaluation.” I didn’t wait for her response. I threw the phone back to the stunned Brody. Then I pulled out my own phone, dialed my father’s number, and hit call. The instant he picked up, I spoke. My voice wasn’t loud, but it cut clearly through the silence of the print room and echoed across the stunned office floor. “Dad, you can cancel the inspection.” “Tell Sloane Albright to come back here. And tell her to bring the divorce papers.”
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