Chapter 4 - The Tarmac ConfrontationBack on the tarmac, the auxiliary power unit of the chartered jet finally hummed back to life, restoring weak interior lighting, but the climate control remained frozen. The cabin was rapidly dropping to sub-zero temperatures as the winter wind howled outside.
Passengers were panicking. Regional directors were shouting into dead cell phones, trying to reach corporate headquarters, only to receive automated disconnection notices.
Carter stumbled down the narrow aisle of the first-class cabin, his hair disheveled, his expensive Italian suit wrinkled, and his face drenched in cold sweat. He burst out of the aircraft door and scrambled down the metal airstair, nearly tripping over his own shoes.
He spotted me standing near the private security gate, calmly wrapped in my cashmere coat, sipping a cup of hot black coffee handed to me by one of my personal assistants.
“Samantha!” Carter roared, sprinting across the icy tarmac like a madman, ignoring the security guards who stepped forward to block him. He shoved past them, grabbing my coat sleeves with trembling hands. “What have you done?! What did you do to the servers? My phone is locked! The board is telling me the company accounts are frozen! Marcus isn't answering his phone!”
I slowly lowered my coffee cup, tilting my head as I looked down at the man who had ordered me to the back of the plane less than an hour ago.
“Take your hands off me, Carter,” I said softly. My voice wasn't raised, but it carried a lethal, freezing authority that made him flinch.
He dropped his hands, staring at me as if seeing a ghost for the very first time. “Sam... baby, please. Tell me this is a joke. Some kind of test? I know I shouldn't have given your seat to Khloe, okay? I was stressed, the board meeting was tense—she gets sick easily, you know how it is! But freezing the company? Destroying everything we built?”
“We built?” I echoed, letting out a short, cold laugh. “Carter, do you honestly believe you built this?”
“Of course I did! I stayed up nights coding! I pitched to investors!”
“You stayed up nights playing poker while I paid your college debts,” I countered, stepping closer to him until he was forced to look directly into my eyes. “You pitched to investors using PowerPoint decks I designed, funded by money my grandfather earned before you were even born. And the thirteen foundational patents that make Vance Industries worth billions? They were registered under my maiden name before we even walked down the aisle.”
Carter’s breath hitched. His eyes bulged in absolute disbelief. “That’s... that’s a lie. The patents belong to the corporation—”
“The corporation is a hollow shell,” I interrupted smoothly. “And as of right now, you are no longer the CEO. You are no longer an employee. You are a trespasser standing on private property.”
Behind Carter, the door of the private shuttle bus opened. Eleanor and Khloe stepped out into the freezing wind, wrapped in their expensive furs, looking terrified.
“Samantha!” Eleanor shrieked, waddling across the tarmac, her face twisted in rage. “How dare you cause this scene! Fix this instant! Call your father, tell him to clear Carter’s accounts, and apologize to my son right now or I swear—!”
“Or what, Eleanor?” I turned my gaze to my mother-in-law, cutting her off mid-rant. “You’ll evict me from the home I bought and paid for? Oh, wait. That’s right. The Cherry Hills mansion is registered under my name, too. The eviction notice was served to your butler twenty minutes ago.”
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Eleanor gasped, clutching her pearls as if she were having a heart attack. “You... you ungrateful, wicked girl! Carter is your husband! You belong to him!”
“I belong to no one,” I whispered, turning my back on them as my private helicopter settled onto the adjacent pad, its rotor wash kicking up a blinding cloud of snow.
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