Chapter 88: No More
Derek Haven was spoiled. That much he knew. He had been born into money and grown up in it. Anything he wanted he got. Where regular kids were bought toys for their birthdays, he got islands, yachts, vacations with an entire resort booked. He named it, he got it.
That was just the way his life was. But his mother, in between all of the buying hike whatever he wanted, had also given him a strong work ethic.
"You can have this because you have worked for it. Earn it, and it is yours," She used to say.
And Derek had carried that into his adulthood, being sure that he worked hard so he did not become just another spoiled rich kid. But despite all of that, Derek had somehow gotten spoiled in the last place that he had been expecting it to happen...at work.
Emily Molson, had spoiled him.
She had spoiled him rotten, and done it so masterfully that he had not even realized that it was happening. From an early age, Derek had been taught that a healthy dose of paranoia was a good thing. That you could never trust anyone. And it was a belief that had saved him many a headache in the past. But Emily, in her quiet way, had somehow made it through the wall that he kept up.
He had come to trust her, and she had never once let him down. Whatever he told her in confidence staying between them, never reaching anyone else’s ears. And Derek had simply explained it away as ... she is my PA, she is just doing her job. But oily Carl had been his PA too, and that had not stopped the man from trying to spy on Derek for his uncle.
Emily had been unbelievably competent and level headed, no matter the situation. Even standing beside him when he had been sure that he was about to be burned to death by an angry mob. He had taken that for granted. That was what personal assistants were supposed to be afterall. But he was proven very wrong on that front. After Carl, there came Margaret. She had four degrees, two masters, and was working on a Phd. All of that intelligence and she panicked ten minutes before Derek was supposed to have a meeting with a high profile client. He’d had to take over the planning and finish off for her while she threw up in the ladies room. She had quit on her own.
Emily had been a professional, never behaving in a way that was out of line. Something that HR’s chosen replacement for Margaret quickly set out to dissolve. Alexa seemed to be operating under the very false notion that she was the hottest person on earth, and that no one could resist her. Having his PA try to smother him with her breasts was not Derek’s idea of a good time. He had fired her on the spot. She and her implants could go terrorise another CEO elsewhere, far, far away from him. She had even had the nerve to try and say that he had groped her.
In answer, he had pointed at the cameras in his office.
"I am certain your crocodile tears would have fooled a few people, but the moment footage of what you did gets out, you will be ruined. And if you dare try to blackmail me again, I will sue you for all you are worth. You and your family will be paying off the debt for generations," She had left crying, putting on the performance of a lifetime as she had gone out. Calling him every rotten name under the sun