She Rejected the Poor Boy in College… 5 Years Later, He Became Her Boss!
Chapter 4
The investigation revealed that someone inside Sterling had been manipulating market reports.
Sales numbers were exaggerated.
Customer data had been altered.
Budgets had been redirected.
The fraud was substantial.
Ethan formed a small investigation team.
Emma was included.
She asked why.
“Because you noticed the discrepancy.”
“I almost got fired for it.”
“You didn’t.”
“That was luck.”
“No.”
He looked at her.
“It was judgment.”
Emma smiled.
Working with Ethan changed the way she remembered college.
Back then, she’d seen someone who had nothing.
Now she saw someone who had built everything himself.
But there was something else.
He hadn’t become arrogant.
He still remembered what it felt like to be ignored.
One evening, they stayed late in the office.
Emma looked exhausted.
“You should go home.”
“So should you.”
He smiled.
“My home is twenty minutes away.”
“Mine is forty.”
“Then you should definitely go.”
She laughed.
They talked about college.
“You know what I remember most?” Emma asked.
“What?”
“The library.”
Ethan smiled.
“I remember.”
“I don’t know why I said what I said.”
“Because you believed it.”
“I was selfish.”
“You were honest.”
She looked at him.
“Were you hurt?”
“Yes.”
She winced.
“I’m sorry.”
He nodded.
“I know.”
She asked:
“How did you move on?”
“I didn’t.”
Emma froze.
“What?”
“I moved forward.”
She understood.
He hadn’t erased the past.
He had simply refused to let it define him.
A few weeks later, Emma discovered another problem.
Payments were being made to a consulting company controlled by a board member.
The company provided almost nothing.
Ethan wanted to shut the arrangement down.
The board resisted.
One member warned him:
“You’re moving too fast.”
Ethan replied:
“We’re already moving too late.”
Emma watched him.
There was steel beneath the calm.
He began removing corrupt executives.
Then the retaliation started.
Anonymous accusations.
Leaked emails.
Articles questioning Ethan’s leadership.
The same people he’d challenged were fighting back.
One article described him as an inexperienced heir.
But Ethan wasn’t an heir.
He had built his wealth.
Emma knew that now.
She defended him in a meeting.
An executive laughed.
“Why are you so loyal to him?”
Emma answered:
“Because he’s right.”
The room went quiet.
Ethan heard about it later.
He came to her office.
“You didn’t have to defend me.”
“I know.”
“Then why?”
Emma looked at him.
“Because you deserved someone to.”
He smiled.
“That means more than you think.”
Their relationship remained professional.
But something was changing.
Slowly.
Quietly.
Dangerously.
Then Ethan received a call.
Northstar’s original founder had disappeared.
He had left behind one message.
Someone inside Sterling knows what happened to your father.
Ethan’s father?
Emma had never heard him mention him.
Now she realized there was a part of Ethan’s past she knew nothing about.
And someone was using it against him.
