“Elania! You have to help me!” Katherine hissed into the phone, sounding completely frantic and on the verge of tears. The arrogant, untouchable sister from the night before was completely gone. “Vanguard just pulled out of the deal!
They cancelled everything! If this acquisition falls through, my agency is going to go under by the end of the quarter. I leveraged everything on this buyout! Do you know anyone in finance? Can you ask around? I need a miracle.”
I took a slow sip of my coffee, enjoying the sheer panic in her voice. “I know,” I said calmly.
“What do you mean you know?” she snapped, a hint of her usual aggression bleeding through.
“I know they pulled the deal, Katherine. Because I’m the one who canceled it,” I said, letting the words hang in the air.
There was a long, suffocating silence on the other end of the line. I could hear her ragged breathing. “What… what are you talking about? You’re just a low-level accountant or something. Stop playing jokes, Elania, this is my life!”
“I am the Senior VP of Corporate Acquisitions at Vanguard, Katherine. The file was on my desk. I was going to sign off on it today. But then I remembered how you shoved my daughter off a chair and called her a parasite, and how Mom and Dad sat there and watched. So, consider this a lesson in cultural risk assessment. Your company is toxic, because you are toxic.”
“You can’t do this!” she screamed, losing her mind. “I’ll tell Mom and Dad! You’re ruining this family! You’re destroying my life over a stupid accident!”
“It wasn’t an accident, and you can tell whoever you want,” I said smoothly. “But no one is buying your company.
Have a nice week, Katherine.”
I hung up the phone. Within an hour, my mother was blowing up my phone, screaming at me for being “jealous” and “vindictive,” demanding that I call my bosses and fix this for my sister. They still don’t get it. They think they can protect their golden child from the consequences of her own cruelty. But the deal is dead, Katherine’s company is sinking, and for the first time in my life, the quiet sister got the last word.
