Briggs shoved her. Hard.
“You’re nothing here! Get back in line!” he roared, throwing his full weight into the push.
Evelyn stumbled backward, her heels slipping on the polished marble. She crashed hard to the floor.
The lobby exploded in horrified gasps.
Briggs puffed out his chest, feeling like an absolute king.
That feeling lasted exactly one second.
A blur of black fabric crossed the lobby. The silent stranger didn’t shout. He didn’t hesitate. He moved with a terrifying, surgical speed.
Before Briggs could even turn his head, his right arm was seized, violently wrenched upward, and locked behind his back. The burly guard let out a choked gasp as his feet nearly left the floor.
*SMASH.*
The man in the suit drove Briggs face-first into the grey metal security desk. Badges scattered. The steel rattled. Briggs was instantly pinned, his cheek flattened against the cold table, entirely helpless under a bone-breaking grip.
Evelyn stood up. She didn’t look shaken. She didn’t even look angry.
She calmly smoothed out her beige shirt, adjusted her gold necklace, and stepped toward the desk.
From across the room, the head of HR stepped forward, her voice trembling. “M-Ms. Sterling… I have the corporate acquisition papers ready for your signature.”
Briggs’ blood turned to ice. *Sterling.* The billionaire who had just bought out the entire company.
Evelyn placed a hand flat against her chest, her expression shifting from calm to absolute, terrifying authority. She leaned down, locking eyes with the sweating, hyperventilating guard.
“You confused a badge with authority,” Evelyn said, her voice slow, flat, and devastating. “You’re fired.”
Briggs couldn’t move. With his face crushed against the desk, eyes wide and jaw unhinged, he drowned in the sudden, agonizing terror of his own ruin.