Chapter 6 - THE PRICE OF VANITY
By five o'clock that evening, the corporate offices of Bennett Lane Commerce had been cleared of Ryan Bennett's presence.
His personal effects—the framed magazine covers featuring his face, the awards for "Top Digital Entrepreneur Under 30," the autographed basketball jerseys, and his collection of expensive colognes—had been packed into four cardboard boxes and stacked outside the security desk.
Marcus Rivera had delivered the formal notification of termination to Ryan's personal attorneys. Because of the clear evidence of embezzlement and fiduciary fraud, Ryan's executive employment contract was terminated for cause, forfeiting his severance package, his stock vesting bonuses, and his corporate indemnification.
Furthermore, Apex Capital and I initiated legal proceedings to claw back the three hundred and eighty thousand dollars in misappropriated funds, placing a temporary freeze on Ryan's personal brokerage accounts.
I stayed in the executive suite until 8:00 p.m., working through the backlog of operational approvals that had accumulated during my two-week absence. With three phone calls, I resolved the standoff with our Vietnamese suppliers, authorized the release of our holiday inventory from the Port of Long Beach, and stabilized our third-quarter marketing campaigns.
The company didn't miss a beat. The machine ran smoothly because the engine had never been Ryan. It had always been me.
As I was finally packing my laptop to leave, the heavy glass door of my new corner office swung open.
Ryan stood in the doorway.
He looked like a derelict. His tie was gone, his designer shirt was rumpled and unbuttoned at the collar, and his eyes were bloodshot and swollen from hours of crying. He looked older, smaller, stripped of the manufactured charisma that had carried him through the last decade.
"The guards told me I had fifteen minutes to collect my things," Ryan said, his voice hoarse and hollow.
"Your boxes are at reception," I said without looking up from my screen. "You shouldn't be on this floor, Ryan."
He took two slow steps into the office, his hands hanging limply at his sides. "Natalie... please. Just talk to me. Five minutes. That's all I'm asking for. Nine years of our lives... doesn't that earn me five minutes?"
I closed my laptop, folded my hands on the mahogany desk, and looked at him. "You have four minutes, Ryan."
Ryan stepped closer, stopping across from the desk. He looked around the room—the room that used to be his—and swallowed hard. "I'm ruined, Nat. The board canceled my equity vesting. The press found out about the embezzlement; Business Insider just reached out for comment. Madison and Tyler have already been questioned by the police. By tomorrow morning, every brand sponsor I have will drop me."
"That tends to happen when you steal from your own company to fund your assistant's secret life," I said coldly.
"I didn't know!" Ryan cried, tears welling up in his eyes once more. "I swear to God, Natalie, I thought Noah was mine! I thought I was doing the noble thing! I thought I was taking responsibility for a mistake!"
"The noble thing?" I stood up, my voice dropping into an icy, biting monotone that made him flinch. "You cheated on me, Ryan. Whether it happened in Chicago or in your imagination, you were entirely willing to throw away nine years of partnership, our engagement, our home, and our future because you were flattered that a twenty-five-year-old girl paid attention to you. You didn't leave me because you wanted to be a noble father. You left me because you thought you had outgrown me."
Ryan shook his head frantically, reaching out across the desk, his fingers grasping at the air. "No, Nat, that's not true! I panicked! I was terrified of being a father, and I was ashamed of what I had done to you! I thought you would hate me forever, so I pushed you away first!"
"And you were right," I said softly. "I do hate what you became."
"I love you, Natalie," Ryan sobbed, dropping to his knees right there on the Persian rug in front of my desk, clasping his hands together in desperate, humiliating supplication. "I have always loved you. I made the biggest mistake a man could ever make. Please... take me back. We can fix this. You can drop the charges, we can rebrand together, we can tell the public it was all a misunderstanding. I'll give you full control of my shares. I'll sign whatever you want. Just don't throw me away like this."
I looked down at him. For nine years, this man had been my sun, the center around which my entire universe revolved. I had sacrificed my pride, my health, and my dreams to lift him onto a pedestal where the world could applaud him.
And now, looking at him groveling on the floor, I felt no anger. I felt no satisfaction.
I only felt a profound, liberating emptiness.
"Your four minutes are up, Ryan," I said quietly.
"Natalie, please!" he begged, reaching to touch the hem of my trousers.
May you like
I stepped back, out of his reach, picked up my leather handbag, and walked toward the door.
"Goodbye, Ryan," I said without looking back. "Make sure security sees you out."
