My CEO Father's Golden Mistake

For the woman he called his one true love—the one that got away—my father was willing to burn his entire life to the ground. He was even willing to leave my mother with nothing but the clothes on his back.

My mother agreed to his terms.

And I couldn't wait to see if his high school sweetheart would still want him when he had absolutely nothing left to give.

1

The air in our house was thick and strange the moment I walked in. My father, Robert, a man who usually lived at the office, was home before me for the first time in years. My mother, Catherine, whose laughter was the constant soundtrack of our home, sat on the sofa, her face a mask of stone.

"Chloe," my mother said, her voice flat. "Your father and I are getting a divorce."

The words hit me like a physical blow, knocking the wind out of me.

As she laid out the story, the strange atmosphere sharpened into a sick, ugly clarity. Dad had a sweetheart back in high school, Diane. The one he never got over. She’d moved away, he’d lost his chance, and that was supposed to be that. Then my mother, Catherine Sterling, had fallen for him—young, brilliant, and dirt-poor. She’d pursued him relentlessly. Eventually, he’d married her.

Now, Diane was back in town. A chance encounter had convinced my father it was destiny. He was ready to throw away twenty-five years of marriage for a ghost.

"Let’s forget for a second that you haven't seen this woman in almost thirty years," I said, my voice dangerously calm. "Back then, you were a kid with empty pockets and she wasn't interested. Now you're the CEO of a publicly-traded company, and suddenly she is. Does she want you, Dad, or does she want the Sterling name?"

"You will not disrespect Diane!" he snapped, his face flushing a deep red, as if I’d just desecrated a holy relic.

He had never, not once in my entire life, spoken to me with that kind of fury. I was his pride and joy. I glanced at my mother, and in her eyes, I saw the same profound disappointment that was churning in my own gut.

"Well," I sighed, forcing a detached tone. "If you've both made your decision, it's not my place to interfere. You'll always be my parents, no matter what."

Relief washed over my father's face. "Chloe, I knew you'd understand. You've always been such a good kid."

"But I should remind you," I continued, my voice hardening slightly, "when you walk away from this marriage, you walk away with nothing. You've poured your heart and soul into Sterling Corp. Are you really willing to give all of that up?"

My dad married into my mother's family. He was a brilliant nobody when my mom, head-over-heels in love, insisted she had to marry him. My grandfather, a man who never did anything without a contract, had agreed on one condition: my father had to sign a rock-solid prenuptial agreement. If the marriage ever ended, for any reason, he would leave with nothing.

My mother was a socialite, brilliant at hosting parties but clueless about business. The company had always been my father’s domain to run. But the shares, the actual ownership, had always been in my mother's name and mine. He didn't own a single one.

A divorce meant he was out. Completely.

On the big things, my mother had always been surprisingly clear-eyed.

"Diane and I have true love," he declared, his chest puffed out with a self-righteousness that made me want to scream. "True love isn't measured in dollars and cents. I won't take a dime of the Sterling money. I'll build a new life for her with my own two hands!"

It was a noble speech. But if he couldn't build a life for himself when he was young, hungry, and brilliant, what made him think he could do it now, in middle age? Years at the helm of Sterling Corp had given him more than a platform; it had given him an ego. He truly believed he was Robert Quinn, the titan of industry, not Robert Quinn, the man who ran his wife's company.

"I respect your choice, Dad," I said smoothly. "In that case, we should probably schedule a board meeting for next week. I'll need to be appointed as the new CEO."

He stared at me, dumbfounded. "What are you talking about? The board appointed me CEO. Since when is that your decision to make?"

I let out a small, pitying laugh. "Dad, you seem to be confused. The board chose you because Mom and I, as the majority shareholders, voted for you. Now that you're divorcing her, do you honestly believe we'll continue to support you? A CEO with no shares doesn't even have a right to a seat on the board, does he?"

He was speechless, the wind knocked out of his sails. He turned to my mother, grasping for a lifeline. "Catherine, is this what you want, too?"

My mother’s voice was more venomous than mine. "What part of 'leaving with nothing' are you struggling with? Once this divorce is final, you are no longer part of this family. Why on earth would we let you run our family's company and draw a salary from our family's profits? The audacity!"

His face was beet red. "I am still Chloe's father!"

"Yes, you are," I said, nodding brightly. "And don't you worry. When you hit retirement age, I'll make sure your support checks are mailed on time. I'll take very good care of your twilight years, Dad. You won't be left all alone."

My father was a man ruled by pride. That was the last straw.

"I don't need it!" he roared. "The Sterling money has nothing to do with me. I'll build my own empire, and you'll see! You'll all see!"

He stormed out. The moment the door slammed shut, my mother and I burst into laughter.

When we finally caught our breath, I looked at her, genuinely curious. "Mom, you were so crazy about him back then. You went on a hunger strike against Grandpa to marry him. Why is it so easy to let him go now?"

She shrugged, a wry smile playing on her lips. "Honey, I was blinded by a pretty face. Now, that potbelly of his is bigger than his head. The magic died a long time ago. I was staying out of a sense of duty. He's the one who asked for the divorce. Why wouldn't I celebrate?"

Turns out the best cure for being blinded by love is watching the object of your affection lose his looks.

2

Mom and Dad signed the papers and filed them at the courthouse. All that was left was the mandatory thirty-day cooling-off period. In the meantime, Dad started moving his things out, preparing to build his new life with his old flame.

While he was technically leaving with nothing, he’d made a good salary over the years and had his own personal savings. My mother, in a gesture of goodwill, didn't touch his personal accounts. He wasn't walking away literally penniless. But the houses, the stocks, the investments tied to the Sterling name—those were all hers. After buying a new house for himself and Diane, most of his savings were already gone.

With the personal assets settled, it was time to deal with the company. The board meeting was set for the following week, and our PR team was already drafting strategies to manage the fallout from a CEO change at a publicly-traded company.

I thought things were moving along smoothly. Then I walked into the office on Monday and stepped directly into a crisis.

"Ms. Sterling," my assistant, David, said, his face pale. "We have a problem. Horizon pulled out of the contract renewal."

"Horizon? They've been with us for twenty years. The renewal was a sure thing. What happened?"

David looked down at his shoes, shuffling his feet.

My voice dropped. "Tell me. Now."

"It was the new manager, Ms. Bishop. Mr. Quinn put her on the account. She… she told Horizon that the discount we offer them was too generous. She said Sterling is the only company that can meet their supply needs, so she was raising the price. Horizon refused to sign."

"Why wasn't I told about something this important? And who the hell is Ms. Bishop? Why would HR hire such a monumental idiot?"

"Mr. Quinn said she was to have full authority and report only to him," David mumbled. "And… HR didn't hire her. Mr. Quinn brought her in himself."

My father was a sharp businessman. He never made careless mistakes with major accounts. For him to bring in this "Ms. Bishop" and give her this much power meant something was very wrong.

"Get me Mr. Davis from Horizon on the phone. I'll handle this personally. And tell Ms. Bishop I want to see her in my office. Immediately."

While David was gone, I pulled up the new manager's file.

Brianna Bishop. A degree from some obscure overseas university that sounded more like a diploma mill than a real school. Zero prior work experience. And she’d been hired directly as a manager in the sales department.

When had the standards at Sterling Corp. dropped so low?

Then I saw it on her resume, listed under emergency contacts. Her mother: Diane Bishop.

My father's "one that got away."

Of course.

3

When my assistant showed Brianna Bishop into my office, she carried an air of undisguised contempt. She didn't greet me, just dropped into the chair opposite my desk. "You wanted to see me, Ms. Sterling?"

"You're fired."

I had planned to question her, to understand her reasoning. Seeing her entitled smirk, I realized it was pointless.

"On what grounds?" she demanded, her voice sharp with indignation. "Mr. Quinn hired me personally!"

"On the grounds that you just lost us the Horizon account," I said without looking up from the file in front of me. "Horizon has been a loyal partner for two decades. In one meeting, you managed to destroy that relationship. That's a catastrophic failure. I'd fire you twice if I could."

"Sterling is a huge company. We have other clients," she scoffed, as if she were explaining basic economics to a child. "And that discount we were giving Horizon was costing us a fortune. I was saving the company money!"

Her complete and utter cluelessness was so staggering I almost laughed. Arguing with her would be like wrestling with a pig in mud.

"David," I said to my assistant, "please escort her to HR to process her termination."

Brianna refused to move. "You can't fire me! Do you think Uncle Robert knows you're doing this? He brought me in himself!" She shot David a dirty look as he approached. "Don't touch me!"

Then she pulled the ultimate card. "You're only doing this because your parents are getting divorced, and you blame my mom! Well, guess what? My mom and Uncle Robert are getting married. I'm going to be his daughter soon, and this company is his! That means it will be half mine one day!"

I pressed my fingers to my temples, feeling a headache bloom. If the daughter was this stupid, the mother couldn't be a genius. What on earth did my father see in her?

"David, what are you standing there for? Call security."

He fumbled for his phone, his face a mixture of shock and embarrassment at witnessing this family drama. Brianna saw him make the call and escalated, whipping out her own phone.

"Uncle Robert, you have to come quick! They're trying to throw me out!"

My father, it turned out, was faster than building security. He burst into my office, his face etched with worry.

The second he appeared, Brianna’s entire demeanor shifted. Her face crumpled, her voice became a fragile, wounded thing. "Uncle Robert," she whimpered, "I don't know what I did to make Chloe so angry. She just came in and said she was firing me."

"It's okay, sweetheart. I'll handle this," he soothed, looking at her with heartbreaking tenderness before turning to me, his eyes blazing with fury. "Chloe, this is about us, the adults. You will not drag Brianna into it. She's an innocent party here."

I let out a cold, sharp laugh. "Innocent? She used her connection to you to get a job she's completely unqualified for, and her first act was to lose us one of our biggest clients. And you're telling me she's innocent?"

My father clearly hadn't heard about the Horizon deal. He glanced at Brianna, a flicker of confusion in his eyes.

She immediately launched into her defense, her voice thick with fake tears. "Uncle Robert, I didn't mean to! I was just trying to do what was best for you. Giving Horizon such a huge discount… it was your money I was trying to save."

I snorted. She wasn't trying to save his money. She was trying to save what she thought would one day be her money.

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