You Were Always Mine

The Scandal

The tablet screen glowed against Vivian's lap as the car eased into morning traffic.

She scrolled through her messages first, half-listening to the news anchor's voice drifting from the small speaker. Then a name caught her attention.

‘Pearl Corporation.’

She turned the volume up.

"...multiple former employees have come forward this week with disturbing allegations against CEO Vivian Pearl," the anchor said, her expression arched into concern.

"Sources describe a hostile work environment, public humiliation, and what one former staff member calls, quote, 'targeted cruelty.' "

Vivian's fingers stilled over the screen.

The broadcast cut to a pre-recorded clip.

Bibi sat in a dim studio, dabbing her eyes with a tissue that was suspiciously dry.

"She just...she screamed at me in front of everyone." Bibi's voice cracked on cue. "I was terrified. I still have nightmares about it."

Vivian's jaw tightened.

The segment cut again, this time to a man she barely recognized.

Frank, the team lead whom she had advised to resign, was on the screen.

"I worked there for six years," Frank said with arms crossed, bitterness carved into every line of his face.

"She has been horrible to staff members, especially to Bibi Faye and I was forced to resign. I couldn't take it anymore."

Cassandra glanced at her through the rearview mirror, knuckles pale against the steering wheel.

"Ma'am…"

"Keep driving."

Then Tina's face filled the screen, and something in Vivian's chest went cold.

Tina sat stiffly, eyes darting somewhere off camera before returning to the interviewer.

Her voice shook slightly as she swallowed.

"She... she can be difficult to work for," Tina said carefully, each word sounding like it had been handed to her.

"I don't want to say more than that."

The interviewer pressed. "We've heard she publicly berated staff members. Would you agree with that characterization?"

Tina's eyes flicked off camera again, quick and involuntary.

"I... I'd rather not comment further."

The segment ended there, looping back to the anchor.

Vivian set the tablet down slowly, staring out the window without seeing any of it.

"That's not what happened," Cassandra said, voice tight. "Tina would never say that on her own."

"I know."

Cassandra's eyes flicked back to the mirror, searching Vivian's face in silence.

She found nothing.

"Ma'am, this is serious. This could…"

"Cassandra." Vivian's voice was calm, almost bored. "Drive."

The lobby of Pearl Corporation felt different the moment Vivian stepped through the doors.

Conversations stopped mid-sentences and eyes followed her across the marble floor, quick glances that darted away the second she turned her head.

A junior employee near the elevator bank actually took a step back as she approached.

Vivian said nothing.

She pressed the button for the executive floor and waited, spine straight, expression unreadable.

The elevator doors slid shut, and only then did her reflection in the polished steel betray her.

A muscle ticked once along her jaw before she smoothed it away.

Her office phone was already ringing by the time Cassandra unlocked the door.

"Ms. V, legal wants a statement drafted within the hour, and PR is asking if you want to schedule a press…"

"Not yet."

"The board chat has forty unread messages."

"Let them stay unread."

Cassandra hesitated at the door, tablet clutched to her chest.

"There's something else."

Vivian looked up.

"There are videos online. From the meeting with Bibi's team." Cassandra swallowed. "Someone recorded it. And it's edited."

"Edited how?"

Cassandra turned her own tablet around.

The clip had been cut down to under a minute, stripped of context and uploaded.

What remained was Vivian's voice saying, ‘I don't care what you were trying to do. Stay put! You are dismissed, effective immediately’, layered over Bibi's face crumpling in what looked, out of context, like genuine devastation.

The caption beneath it read: ‘Billionaire CEO humiliates employee on camera.’

It had over two million views.

Vivian scrolled through the comments in silence. Her expression didn't change, not once, though something behind her eyes had gone very still and very sharp.

Connel: This is disgusting.

Snnz: Rich people really think they can treat workers like this.

Jennie: Someone needs to expose her for who she really is.

Finn: I always knew something was off about her.

Cassandra hovered near the desk, clearly bracing for an explosion that wasn't coming.

"Ma'am, I can have this taken down. Legal can send a…"

"Leave it."

Cassandra blinked. "What?"

"I said leave it."

Vivian set the tablet down, folding her hands over it like closing a book she'd already finished reading.

"For now."

"But it's going to keep spreading. People are already…"

"I know exactly what people are doing, Cassandra."

Cassandra simply couldn't understand her boss anymore, eyes darting over her face in search of reason.

All she could see was that look she'd come to learn was Vivian thinking three steps ahead of everyone else in the room.

Her desk phone buzzed again; it was an incoming call from Louis.

She slid on the receive glutton without a second thought.

"Grandfather."

"Vivian." Louis's voice came through tight. "Turn on the television. Now."

"I've already seen it."

"Then you understand how serious this is.”

He paused , the silence heavy with something she rarely heard in his voice.

Her old man was worried.

"The board is asking questions.."

Vivian's fingers tightened slightly around the phone.

"Let them be. They've been having a lot to say lately and this only opened the door for it. You know that."

"Vivian, this isn't a joke. If this isn't handled correctly, it could affect Pearl. It could affect everything we've built."

"I'm aware of what's at stake."

"Then act like it." His voice sharpened, something close to fear bleeding out of his words.

"Do you have any idea who could be behind this? Because this isn't random.”

Vivian's gaze drifted toward the window, toward the city stretching out below her office, indifferent to the storm gathering above her name.

"I have a guess," she said quietly.

"Who?"

Before she could answer, Cassandra's phone buzzed violently on the desk beside her, screen lighting up again and again.

Cassandra picked it up, scanning the screen, and her face went pale in an instant.

"Ma'am." Her voice came out barely above a whisper. "You need to see this."

Vivian lowered the phone from her ear slightly, Louis's voice still crackling faintly through the speaker.

"What is it?"

Cassandra turned the screen around, hand visibly trembling.

A new headline had been posted only minutes ago.

BREAKING: Leaked documents suggest Vivian Pearl falsified company records years before becoming CEO.

Vivian's blood went cold.