Two members of my private team stepped discreetly between us.
My mother stopped short.
Her smile trembled. “Tell them to move. I’m your mother.”
“You were my mother at lunch,” I said. “You were my mother when you handed Sydney a hundred thousand dollars and gave me the bill.”
Harold stepped in quickly. “Diana, emotions were high. We were trying to motivate you. Tough love can look harsh from the outside, but clearly it worked.”
I stared at him.
The room seemed to cool.
“Tough love,” I repeated.
He swallowed.
“You tore my acceptance letter in half,” I said. “You gave away my graduation seat to impress a lender. You told me Sydney was the face of the family. You told me I lacked potential. And now that you know who I am, you want credit for the work you tried to stop.”
Patricia wrung her hands. “We made mistakes.”
“No,” I said. “Mistakes are accidental. What you did was consistent.”
Sydney stepped forward, voice shaking. “Diana, please. You have to fix this.”
I looked at her. “Fix what?”
“The university. Axiom. Everything.” She wiped under one eye with the back of her hand. “You donated ten million dollars. They’ll listen to you. Tell them it was a misunderstanding. Reinstate my degree. Confirm my job. We’re sisters.”
The word sisters sounded strange in her mouth, like a key she had found in a drawer and did not know how to use.
“You want me to use my company and my name to cover for you,” I said.
“I want you to help your family.”
“You mean save your image.”
Sydney’s face hardened. There she was. The real Sydney, rising through the ruined softness. “I already told people about that position. I bought clothes. I made plans. You can’t just humiliate me like this.”
“I didn’t humiliate you,” I said. “I revealed the truth. There’s a difference.”
Patricia stepped beside her. “Diana, wealthy families protect their own. Sydney has social skills. She could still be useful to Axiom. You are brilliant with systems, but she knows people. You could be a team.”
I almost laughed.
They had spent my life making sure I owned nothing, and now they wanted office space in my empire.
I extended one hand toward Oliver.
He placed a black leather portfolio in my palm.
Sydney’s eyes locked onto the Axiom logo embossed on the top page. Hope lit her face so quickly it was almost painful to watch.
I opened the folder and removed the employment contract she had signed three days earlier.
“Director of Strategy,” I read. “Base salary. Signing bonus. Stock options. Executive benefits.”
Sydney took half a step forward.
“It was a generous offer,” I said. “Designed for a candidate with exceptional integrity and original thought.”
Her hand hovered in the air.
I tore the contract in half.
The sound filled the room.
Sydney gasped as if the air had been taken from her. Patricia cried out. Harold moved forward, then stopped when Oliver shifted one calm step into his path.
I tore the papers again and let the pieces fall to the carpet.
“I do not hire people who build careers on someone else’s work,” I said. “Your offer has been withdrawn. The formal notice is already in your inbox.”
Sydney stared at the scraps. “You can’t.”
“I can.”