Chapter 5 - Shadows of the Past
The rain tapped softly against the reinforced glass of my penthouse office, blurring the neon lights of the city below into a shimmering watercolor canvas. It had been nearly a month since the fall of the Morrison dynasty, and life at Apex Global had reached a new level of streamlined efficiency. Without Brendan’s dead weight draining resources and injecting toxic office politics into the acquisition department, productivity had surged by twenty-two percent.
I stood by the window, resting one hand gently on my visibly rounded belly. I was seven months pregnant now, and the baby was growing strong, active, and resilient—traits she had apparently inherited from her mother.
My private secretary, a sharp and competent young woman named Evelyn, knocked softly before stepping into the room.
"Madam Chairman," Evelyn said, holding a sleek silver tablet. "You have a visitor downstairs in the private lobby. An uninvited visitor."
I didn't turn away from the window immediately. "Let me guess. Security let them up because they used a clever alias, or did someone finally grow desperate enough to try sneaking past the biometric scanners?"
"Neither," Evelyn replied, her tone laced with professional disdain. "It’s Diane Morrison. She somehow managed to bypass the public front desk by lingering near a delivery courier, and she’s currently making a scene in the ground-floor executive elevator lobby, demanding to speak directly with you. Security is ready to remove her by force, but she started screaming your maiden name, drawing the attention of some passing media reporters."
I narrowed my eyes slightly. Media attention was the last thing I needed right now, not because my identity as the secret owner of Apex Global was fragile—it was rock-solid—but because I preferred my personal life to remain untangled from tabloid gossip while I prepared for my daughter's birth.
"Bring her up," I said quietly.
Evelyn blinked in surprise. "Madam Chairman? Are you sure? That woman poured freezing water over you just weeks ago. She’s unstable, and—"
"I am entirely sure, Evelyn," I interrupted, turning around to face her with a calm, commanding presence. "Let her up. But make sure Arthur and two security officers are standing quietly right outside the double doors. I want her to understand the absolute boundaries of our reality before she utters a single word."
"Understood," Evelyn said, nodding briskly before turning on her heel and leaving the office.
Ten minutes later, the heavy oak doors opened again.
Diane Morrison stumbled into the room like a ghost of her former self. The immaculately coiffed hair, the designer Chanel suits, the arrogant, sneering posture—all of it was gone. She wore a faded, plain beige trench coat that looked two sizes too big for her shrunken frame, her hair was limp and graying at the roots, and her eyes were sunken, rimmed with dark circles of chronic exhaustion and stress.
She looked at the palatial, sunlit office, then slowly shifted her gaze toward me standing by the mahogany desk. For a fleeting second, a flicker of her old arrogance sparked in her eyes, instantly crushed by the overwhelming weight of her current humiliation.
"Cassidy..." Diane choked out, her voice trembling violently as she took a tentative step forward.
"Stop right there, Diane," I said, my voice cutting through the air like a sheet of ice.
At my command, the heavy oak doors behind her clicked open just enough to reveal Arthur and two towering security officers standing in the hallway, their posture rigid, their eyes fixed on her. Diane flinched, looking back over her shoulder before turning her terrified eyes back to me.
"Please..." Diane whispered, her knees suddenly giving out as she sank clumsily onto the plush wool rug, sobbing openly. "Please, Cassidy, have mercy on us. You have everything—billions of dollars, this entire skyscraper, an empire! We have nothing! Brendan has lost his mind, he hasn't slept in days, we were evicted from our home, our bank accounts are completely frozen, and we can't even afford groceries!"
I walked slowly around the desk, stopping a few feet away from her. I looked down at the woman who had once smiled while humiliating me, feeling neither triumph nor anger—only a profound, detached pity.
"You call it mercy, Diane," I said softly, folding my arms across my chest. "When you poured dirty, freezing water over my head while I was carrying my child, did you feel mercy? When you told your friends that I was a worthless beggar draining your family's resources, did you think about mercy?"
Diane choked on her tears, shaking her head frantically. "We were arrogant... we were blind fools! We didn't know who you were! If we had known you owned Apex—"
"That is precisely the problem, Diane," I interrupted, my voice sharpening. "You didn't care who I was as a human being. You only cared about my perceived value based on what you thought my social standing was. If I had been born into a wealthy family, you would have kissed the ground I walked on. Because you thought I was poor, you treated me like dirt."
Diane wept louder, burying her face in her trembling hands, her shoulders shaking violently. "We'll leave the city, Cassidy. We'll disappear. Just unlock our accounts, give us enough to survive—"
"No," I said firmly.
She froze, looking up with wide, bloodshot eyes. "No?"
"The legal investigations into Brendan’s embezzlement will proceed exactly as planned," I stated with absolute finality. "If he committed crimes against this company, he will face the legal consequences, just like anyone else would. As for you, your housing subsidy is gone, your social standing is gone, and you are finally learning what it feels like to live in the real world—the very world you spent your entire life looking down upon."
I turned my back on her and walked back toward the window.
"Evelyn," I called out clearly.
The door opened instantly.
"Escort Mrs. Morrison out of the building. And if she attempts to breach security or harass me again, ensure that a permanent restraining order is filed before the sun sets."
"Right away, Madam Chairman," Evelyn said, stepping forward and firmly taking Diane by the arm.
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"Cassidy! Please! Don't do this! Cassidy—!" Diane’s desperate screams echoed down the hallway as Evelyn and the security guards escorted her out, the heavy oak doors swinging shut and sealing off the sound completely.
I placed my hand gently back on my belly, feeling a soft, reassuring kick from my daughter. The shadows of the past were finally retreating, swallowed by the brilliant, unbroken light of the future.
