What She Overheard in Her Own Marriage novel Chapter 114

Watching her daughter make silly faces as she sang, Kaia couldn't help but burst into laughter.

It seemed that after her recent hospital stay, Brynlee was taking the whole "staying warm" thing very seriously.

The little girl was just too funny. Kaia laughed, planting kisses all over her chubby cheeks. But as she looked up, she locked eyes with the man in the driver's seat, who was watching them through the rearview mirror.

Kaia didn't have time to hide the smile in her eyes before their gazes met. She stiffened, quickly looking down and pulling her daughter tighter into her arms. All the exhaustion from the trip faded away. Holding Brynlee felt like holding her entire world.

Seeing her deliberately avoid his gaze, Finnian cleared his throat and pivoted back to business.

"About the anonymous report. I've already looked into it. It was Walter Keane, one of the project managers at Aethelstan. You guys had a run-in before. He colluded with a third-party broker. I have all the evidence. It's up to you how you want to handle it."

Kaia paused. She hadn't expected Finnian to move with such terrifying speed to close the case.

"Really? He risked his entire career to sabotage my deal with a partner company just because we bumped heads a few times?" Kaia let out a cold, sharp laugh. "I don't remember us having some deep, blood-feud level rivalry. Don't you think that motive sounds a little weak?"

Finnian's brow furrowed heavily. "The conglomerate will handle the disciplinary action. You'll be notified of the final decision."

Seeing that he had already shifted into his untouchable CEO persona, Kaia didn't bother arguing further.

Three days later, the conglomerate held its quarterly board meeting. The massive conference room was packed. When Kaia and Silas walked in, Noelle was standing right next to Finnian, reviewing some data points with him.

Kaia took one look and looked away.

But Finnian's eyes followed her as she took her seat.

The meeting proceeded systematically. When it was Veridian Future's turn, Silas breezed through the quarterly metrics. Then, without warning, he completely changed the subject.

"Before I yield the floor, I have an obligation to bring a critical security breach to the attention of executive management and the board."

Silas's tone was calm and flat, but it made the man sitting at the head of the table look up.

Ignoring the sudden tension in the room, Silas continued, "Last Friday, right before Veridian was scheduled to close the NorthStar Solutions deal, we were hit with an anonymous whistleblower complaint alleging severe IP infringement. Following an exhaustive internal and external audit, the allegations were proven to be entirely fabricated. It was an act of malicious corporate sabotage."

Silas didn't give anyone a chance to interrupt. He raised his voice slightly, letting the words echo across the boardroom. "Our internal investigation traced the source of this attack directly to Walter Keane, a project manager at Aethelstan Biopharma. Let's be clear—this was a highly targeted strike aimed at crippling a subsidiary's flagship project and disrupting the conglomerate's overall growth strategy."

Every eye in the room snapped to her. Kaia leaned back slowly in her leather chair. Her face was completely impassive. She didn't look at Finnian. Her voice was cool, measured, and perfectly professional.

"First, I want to thank Silas for backing me as my director. As the head of technology, my sole priority is ensuring our IP is clean and our data is bulletproof. The facts spoke for themselves, and the sabotage failed. As for the conglomerate's internal HR protocols and disciplinary actions, that is above my pay grade, and I have no comment."

Kaia paused, finally turning her eyes to meet Finnian's. "I trust the conglomerate's judgment. I have no further demands. I simply expect that 'isolated incidents' like this will not happen again."

Finnian stared at her, genuinely surprised. For a few seconds, the room was perfectly still.

It was the flawless response of a seasoned corporate executive. Cold, diplomatic, and carefully setting boundaries without backing him into a corner.

After the meeting, Kaia and Silas got into the car to head back to Veridian.

Once they were back at the office, Silas personally brought a cup of coffee into Kaia's office and closed the door.

Kaia took the coffee with a quiet thanks, but didn't drink it. "Thank you for standing up for me in there today. But don't publicly challenge him like that again. It won't end well for you."