The Country Girl Everyone Humiliated on Her First Day Was Secretly the New CEO
Chapter 1
Emily Carter had been awake since four-thirty that morning.
Not because she was nervous.
At least, that’s what she kept telling herself.
She stood in front of the mirror of the small apartment she had rented in the city and adjusted the collar of a simple cream blouse.
The blouse wasn’t expensive.
Neither were her black trousers.
Her shoes had belonged to her older sister.
Her handbag had been bought at a secondhand store in her hometown.
Nothing about Emily suggested wealth.
That was exactly how she wanted it.
She looked at herself one last time.
Twenty-seven.
Brown hair tied neatly behind her shoulders.
Minimal makeup.
No jewelry except a small silver watch her grandmother had given her.
She looked like what people in the city would probably expect when they heard the phrase “country girl.”
Emily smiled.
“Good.”
Then she picked up her temporary employee badge.
EMILY CARTER
OPERATIONS ASSOCIATE
Temporary.
That word was important.
Nobody at Carter & Blake Industries knew that Emily’s last name was not just a coincidence.
She was Emily Carter.
The only daughter of William Carter, founder and majority owner of Carter & Blake Industries.
And as of midnight, she was the new CEO.
Her father had suffered a serious heart attack two months earlier.
He had survived.
But his doctors had insisted he step back from daily management.
The board had appointed Emily to take over.
Everyone expected her to arrive as the new CEO with assistants, security, expensive clothes, and a public announcement.
Emily refused.
Instead, she asked the board for something unusual.
“I want to spend one day inside the company before anyone knows who I am.”
The board chairman had laughed.
“Why?”
“Because I’m tired of hearing reports written by people who never stand on the factory floor.”
She wanted to know what employees actually experienced.
Her father had warned her.
“People won’t treat you the same if they know your name.”
“I know.”
“Then why hide it?”
“Because I want the truth.”
He had looked at her for a long moment.
Then smiled.
“Your mother would have done the same thing.”
Emily had grown up on the family farm.
Not the kind of farm people imagined when they heard the word “farm.”
It was a real working operation.
Cattle.
Wheat.
Corn.
A greenhouse.
A small orchard.
Her father had taught her to repair fences before teaching her how to drive.
Her mother had taught her accounting at the kitchen table.
Emily had spent summers working in the fields.
She had learned early that people showed their true character when something went wrong.
A broken tractor.
A failed harvest.
A sick animal.
A late paycheck.
That was why she had chosen to begin her CEO career as an ordinary employee.
She wanted to understand the company from the bottom.
She took a taxi to the headquarters.
The building was enormous.
Glass walls.
Polished stone.
Corporate banners.
A line of luxury cars outside.
Emily stopped across the street.
She looked at the logo.
CARTER & BLAKE INDUSTRIES.
Her father’s company.
Soon hers.
She took a breath.
Then entered.
The receptionist glanced at her.
“Can I help you?”
“I’m here for orientation.”
The receptionist looked at the badge.
“Operations associate?”
“Yes.”
“Human Resources is on the fourth floor.”
“Thank you.”
Emily walked toward the elevator.
A woman in a designer suit stepped in front of her.
“Employees use the service elevator.”
Emily blinked.
“Excuse me?”
The woman pointed toward the opposite hallway.
“That’s for staff.”
Emily looked at the elevator she had been standing beside.
“It’s the employee elevator.”
The woman smiled.
“Not everyone uses that one.”
Emily looked down at her badge.
Then at the woman.
“I’ll take this one.”
The woman stared.
Before she could answer, the elevator opened.
Emily stepped inside.
The woman followed reluctantly.
The ride was silent.
At the fourth floor, Emily followed signs to orientation.
A junior HR employee handed her a folder.
“You’ll spend the morning shadowing the operations team.”
“Okay.”
The woman looked her up and down.
“You came from a rural branch?”
“No.”
“Your application says rural residence.”
Emily nodded.
“I grew up there.”
The HR employee smiled politely.
“That explains the clothes.”
Emily stared.
The woman didn’t notice.
She simply returned to her computer.
“Your supervisor is Daniel Blake.”
Emily froze.
Daniel Blake.
Her father’s business partner’s son.
And the man who had opposed Emily’s appointment from the beginning.
He believed she was too young.
Too inexperienced.
Too connected to her father.
Most of all, he believed the company belonged to him.
Emily took the folder.
“Where is his office?”
“Penthouse floor.”
Of course.
Emily walked toward the elevator again.
She had no idea that before noon, Daniel and several executives would laugh at the “country girl” standing in their office.
And by the end of the day, they would discover she was the woman whose signature they needed to keep their jobs.
