Chapter 42
Chapter 42:
“Fire them? With what money?” He leaned forward, eyes narrowing. “You might have strong-armed your way into some shares, Jocelyn, but you don’t have the cash flow. The hotel’s operating account is drier than a martini. Severance packages for this many people? That’s easily two hundred thousand dollars. We don’t have it p>
Jocelyn went still. He was right. She had the equity, but Uncle Vincent had drained the liquid assets. She was a queen without a treasury.
Arthur saw her hesitation and grinned. “Go home, little girl. Let the adults handle the business p>
Her phone vibrated in her pocket. Once. Twice. A sharp, insistent buzz against her hip.
She ignored it, staring Arthur down, calculating how much she could liquidate from her personal savings. It wouldn’t be enough.
The phone buzzed again.
She pulled it out to silence it. Her eyes caught the notification on the screen.
𝗜𝗇𝗍𝗲ո𝘀e 𝗋𝘰𝗆аnсe o𝘯
Bank Alert: Deposit Received. Amount: $5,000,000.00 Sender: G.C. Holdings LLC
A second later, a text appeared.
Gaston: Capital injection. Handle it.
Jocelyn’s breath hitched. She stared at the zeros. Five million dollars, transferred like it was lunch money. The sheer weight of that number made her knees feel weak. It wasn’t just money — it was ammunition.
She looked up at Arthur. The fear in her chest evaporated, replaced by a cold, hard resolve. The air in the room seemed to shift.
“Arthur,” she said, her voice dropping an octave. “How much did you say that severance would cost p>
Arthur blinked, unsettled by the sudden change in her demeanor. “I told you. About two hundred thousand. Maybe two-fifty with the penalties p>
Jocelyn reached into her bag and produced the Centurion card. The black titanium felt heavy and cold between her fingers. She didn’t slap it on the desk. She placed it deliberately beside her phone — a quiet statement of the power now at her disposal.
“A minor expense.” She unlocked her phone, opened her banking app, and held the screen up for him to see. “I’m funding the severance packages personally. I want an immediate wire transfer authorized from my personal account to the hotel’s payroll account. You will process it. Now p>
Arthur stared at the phone, his eyes widening at the string of zeros. Then he looked at her face. “Excuse me p>
“Did I stutter? The funds are already cleared. You can explain to an external auditor why you’re refusing a capital injection meant for employee compensation, or you can do your job p>
Arthur’s face went pale. He looked at the black card — the kind with no limit, the kind only people like the Collins family carried. Sweat beaded on his upper lip.
“I — the system,” he stammered, his arrogance dissolving into panic. “The payroll system is down. A glitch in the server. I can’t process anything today p>
Jocelyn didn’t blink. She picked up her phone and dialed a three-digit extension.
“Security? This is Jocelyn Wolfe-Collins. Send two officers to the HR director’s office. We have an incident of corporate sabotage p>
“Sabotage?” Arthur squeaked, shooting to his feet so fast his chair rolled back and struck the wall. “You can’t do that! I’ve been here for twenty years p>
“And for the last ten, you’ve been helping Harvey steal,” Jocelyn said calmly.