Chapter 9 - The Purge
By 1:30 PM, the atmosphere at the newly rechristened Aegis Logistics headquarters was electric.
Emma stood on the mezzanine balcony, looking down at the massive open-plan operations floor. Security guards escorted Julian’s hand-picked cronies—men who had laughed at his crude jokes and actively ignored Emma when she brought technical reports to the office—out the front doors with cardboard boxes in their arms.
Her lead systems architect, David Chen—a brilliant engineer Julian had demoted to a basement cubicle for daring to correct his errors—ran up the stairs, clutching a tablet.
"Emma! The server migration is complete," David said, his face glowing with excitement. "All delivery nodes are back online. Latency dropped by 42% the moment we stripped out Julian's bloated tracking spyware."
"Good work, David," Emma smiled warmly. "I'm appointing you Chief Technology Officer. Your first task is to give every warehouse worker and junior developer a 15% salary bump. We build this company on real talent, not nepotism."
David stared at her, stunned, before breaking into a massive grin. "Thank you, Boss! You won't regret this!"
While the office buzzed with newfound energy, Emma retreated into the corner office. She immediately had the gaudy leather furniture and Julian's cigar humidor removed and replaced with clean, minimalist modern desks and ergonomic chairs.
Her phone buzzed. It was a notification from her private bank account: Julian's court-mandated 40% asset liquidations had begun processing. Twelve million dollars in liquid cash had just landed in her escrow trust.
She had stripped them of their pride, their company, and their primary income stream. But Emma knew Evelyn Vance was not a woman who would quietly fade into the background. A wounded snake is at its most venomous.
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Right on cue, Emma’s desk phone rang. It was the security desk in the lobby.
"Ms. Vance—excuse me, Ms. Thorne," the security officer corrected himself quickly. "There is a woman down here demanding to see you. She says she’s Evelyn Vance, and she's threatening to douse herself in gasoline if you don't come down."
