The Most Expensive Slap of Her Career

Brenda lunged forward, falling completely to her knees on the cold marble floor—the exact position she had demanded of Elena ten minutes prior.

"Evelyn, please!" she sobbed, grabbing at the hem of Evelyn’s trousers. "Twenty-two years! I gave twenty-two years of my life to this firm! I made you sixty million dollars on the Great Lakes expansion! You can't put me in a cage for this! Think of my family!"

Evelyn stepped back with disgust, allowing the security guards to step in between them. "You stole four million dollars from the pension fund matching program, Brenda. You didn't make me money. You embezzled from the very kids you forced to pick up your laundry."

The two officers hauled Brenda to her feet by her elbows. Her designer blazer was twisted, her hair coming undone in wild strands.

"Carter knew!" Brenda shrieked, thrashing against the guards' grip. "Ask Carter! Ask the whole floor! Everyone takes the vendor perks! You can't just burn me!"

"Carter has already surrendered his company laptop and is currently being escorted through the basement exit," Arthur said smoothly, pulling a set of corporate termination forms from a leather folder. "As of eight-fourteen this morning, Brenda, your badge credentials are revoked. Your stock options are frozen under the clawback provision of the Sarbanes-Oxley compliance agreement. And your company car has just been booted in the parking garage."

"You ruined me!" Brenda screamed at Elena, her face mottled purple with hysteria as the guards began dragging her down the long glass hallway toward the service elevator. "You spoiled little bitch! You ruined my life!"