The Executive Lie

Chapter 10: Meticulous Savior

I spent the next morning still distracted by the microwaved dinner from the night before. I was back on the audit, but the image of Elias Thorne meticulously planning his late-night nutrition was impossible to shake.

Around ten o'clock, I had a small team meeting scheduled with my old financial manager, Ben, and a junior analyst named Maria. The meeting was in my suite, 7002, right across from Elias’s office.

Maria, who was usually very capable, looked miserable. She was clearly exhausted. When I asked her a simple question about a data set, she completely froze, unable to recall the numbers.

I ended the meeting quickly. "Maria, take the rest of the day," I said quietly. "Go home and rest."

As they were walking out, Maria's exhaustion caught up with her. She tripped over the thick edge of the carpet near my door, dropping her laptop bag and scattering papers everywhere.

Ben immediately knelt to help her, muttering an apology. Maria was near tears, clearly overwhelmed by the disaster in the high-end, silent hallway.

Suddenly, Elias Thorne's door opened.

He stepped out, imposing in his perfectly tailored suit. He looked from the scattered papers and the distressed Maria to me, standing by my door. The hallway went rigid with tension.

I braced myself for the expected lecture about inefficiency. But he didn't lecture.

Elias walked over and slowly, carefully, began gathering the spilled printouts. Maria was speechless. Ben, who had been scrambling, froze, staring at the CEO picking up papers. He gathered the papers into a neat stack. He handed the stack to Ben, then looked at Maria.

​"It happens," he said simply, his voice low but completely calm. "Don't worry about it."

​He looked at Ben. "I see Maria looks tired."

​He stood, dusting off his trousers.

​"Ms. Lane," he said, his voice maintaining that low, steady tone, "We still have a long way to go in managing this new integration. One of your team members looks like she hasn't had any rest."

​"I agree, Mr. Thorne," I replied instantly. "I already told Maria to take the rest of the day off before the accident."

​He paused at his door, turning his head slightly. "That's good." He then opened his door and stepped inside, closing it behind him.

​I looked at Ben, who was holding the stack of papers and staring at the closed door.

​"Did the Ice man just clean up a spill?" Ben whispered, his disbelief palpable. "The guy who the media said once fired an accountant for using the wrong font on a memo? He stopped to help Maria, and then approved of your management choice?"

​I met Ben's stunned gaze, and the confusion I felt was instantly shared.

"I think he did," I murmured. "He saw inefficiency in the form of an exhausted employee and scattered resources, and so he fixed it. I don't think he's ruthless like the media paints him to be. He's just meticulous."

​The puzzle of Elias Thorne was unfolding in surprising ways. He wasn't ruthless, just applied ruthless efficiency to both cost-cutting and high-level management advice. He was kind, but only as a means to prevent any costly errors.