The divorce papers Claire had given him were still on the corner of his desk.
Beside them sat the completed employment review.
Daniel had not spent the three days after Christmas angrily scribbling names onto a firing list.
He had called the company’s legal counsel and senior HR leadership and told them to review every Collins-family position separately.
No theatrics.
No shouted orders.
No special instructions except one.
“Stop treating them as protected.”
That sentence changed everything.
For years, Daniel had allowed Claire’s relatives privileges that other employees did not receive.
Martin had been given an inflated salary because Claire said her father would consider anything less an insult.
Her brothers had been hired into comfortable positions after family pressure.
Cousins appeared whenever someone needed work.
Raises were requested through Claire rather than through ordinary company channels.
Daniel had tolerated it because he believed he was buying peace inside his marriage.
He understood now that he had actually been financing contempt.
Once the family protection disappeared, the company treated those positions exactly as it would have treated anyone else’s.
The result was forty-seven termination notices.
Daniel had expected anger.
He had not expected Martin to arrive at headquarters before noon.
The receptionist called upstairs.
“Mr.
Whitaker, there’s a Martin Collins here demanding to see the owner.”
Daniel looked through the glass wall of his office.
“Send him up.”
Martin stepped off the elevator several minutes later with Claire beside him.
He had changed since Christmas Eve.
The confidence was still there, but it looked forced now.
Claire carried the same divorce folder she had handed Daniel in front of her family.
Neither of them spoke as they entered his office.
Martin looked around slowly.
The large desk.
The conference table.
The skyline.
The framed photographs from completed commercial projects.
He stared at Daniel’s jacket hanging beside the door, then at the work boots Daniel still wore beneath his suit trousers.
“You sit here?” Martin asked.
Daniel nodded.
Martin gave a short, disbelieving laugh.
“All this time?”
“All this time.”
Claire stayed near the door.
Martin put the termination letter on Daniel’s desk.
“You’re going to fix this.”
Daniel glanced at the paper but did not touch it.
“No.”
Martin leaned forward.
“You don’t fire forty-seven people because of a family argument.”
“I didn’t.”
“You expect me to believe that?”
“I told HR to stop protecting forty-seven people because they were related to my wife.
They reviewed the files.
Those are the decisions that came back.”
Martin pointed at him.
“This is revenge.”
Daniel’s expression remained flat.
