She Left She Thrived She’s Worth Billions novel Chapter 448

Averin. The Royce Group.

When Aria spotted Melanie casually strolling into the office, she looked like she had just seen a ghost.

"Y-you're okay?" Aria managed to stammer, forcing a stiff, unnatural smile onto her face.

Melanie stopped and matched her smile. "You sound like you were hoping I wasn't."

A flash of sheer panic crossed Aria's eyes. "What a thing to say! I'm your sister, of course I was worried sick about you. I heard Dr. Hayes and the team ran into a violent cartel shootout in the borderlands and barely made it out alive. They got back to Averin last night and said you were missing, so I just assumed..."

"Assumed I was caught in the crossfire and died?"

Melanie took a slow step forward, and Aria instinctively stumbled back. Just then, an assistant hurried over and handed a file to Melanie.

"Ms. Royce, here are the documents you requested."

Melanie took the folder, flipped through the first few pages, and then slammed it hard against Aria's chest. The heavy file smacked her painfully before scattering across the floor. Aria gasped, clutching her chest in shock.

"Melanie, what the hell are you doing?"

Standing amidst the mess of scattered papers, Melanie stared her down with an ice-cold command. "While we are in this building, you will address me as Ms. Royce. Pick them up."

Aria glared at her, her jaw clenched tight. She had no intention of doing it. But with the entire office watching and the sheer, crushing weight of Melanie's authority bearing down on her, Aria suddenly felt incapable of defying her. Maybe it was the shock of seeing her alive when she had been so certain the MD region would be her grave.

Biting her lip, Aria reluctantly dropped to the floor and began gathering the papers one by one. Melanie's freezing voice drifted down from above her like a bucket of ice water.

Preston, entirely unbothered, strolled into the room with his usual slow, calculated elegance. "Dad. Mom. What brings you both here?"

He met his parents' gaze, his dark eyes unreadable, giving absolutely nothing away. As the patriarch of the Whitmore family, Frederick naturally carried an imposing, authoritative presence. But when measured against the sheer gravity of his eldest son, he still fell ever so slightly short.

Frederick cleared his throat roughly before speaking. "Philip. Go down to accounting, collect an extra month's severance, and then head to HR to process your termination."

Philip kept his head bowed, offering no resistance, as if he had already resigned himself to his fate.

Preston's eyelids lifted slightly. "You're firing my staff... without running it by me first?"

"Preston!" Frederick barked, his face flushing with anger. "He is your assistant! He is the man closest to you, yet he let you fly a helicopter into a warzone like the MD region! He didn't even have the decency to report the risk to us. How can I possibly let an incompetent liability like him stay by your side?"