"Secretary Finch, you brought this on yourself."
The moment he saw his precious secretary hurt, Terry snapped.
He stormed toward me, his heavy leather shoes hammering the floor with every furious stride.
I caught his raised right hand in a vice grip and spoke, each word deliberate and razor-sharp. "Terry Gilbert. The only reason I ever tolerated your nonsense—let you parade around and act out in front of me—was never because I was afraid of you. It was because you were my fiancé."
"But now that you've decided to end our engagement, I don't have to indulge you anymore."
I wrenched his arm and hurled him sideways.
He crashed to the floor beside Beulah, staring up at me with wide, disbelieving eyes. He clearly hadn't expected someone he thought of as fragile to have that kind of explosive strength.
While the two of them sat there stunned, I turned to face the shareholders gathered around the conference table.
"You all love calling me an uneducated nobody who built something from nothing. You think I'm dead weight, that I'm useless." I let my gaze sweep across every single one of them. "But it seems you've forgotten something."
"When this company was still in its infancy, a rival targeted us and seized an entire shipment at the port."
"Everyone said Olive Henson was finished. But I have never accepted that kind of fate."
"I took a knife, went to that dock alone, and fought to get that shipment back. I risked my life to save this company."
"I have weathered storms you people can't even imagine. You really think a school of bottom-feeders like you is going to sink me?"
Terry clenched his fists, teeth grinding as he glared at me.
"Olive, that's ancient history. It doesn't mean anything now."
"Asking you to leave the company isn't just my opinion. It's all of ours."
He rose to his feet, slow and deliberate, and swept his gaze across the shareholders.
"Isn't that right?"
With Terry backing them up, they found their courage.
"That's right!"
The answer came in unison, loud and resolute—a declaration that they intended to band together and force me out.
Beulah gritted her teeth and hauled herself upright, leaning against Terry for support.
"Olive, this company answers to us now!"
I didn't get angry. I just smiled at her.
Terry and these shareholders wouldn't have dared to make a move against me unless they had another card to play.
Sure enough, I was right.