Chapter 2 - The Art of the Setup
Over the next four days, Naomi played the role of the heartbroken, unsuspecting wife with terrifying precision. She packed a small bag of clothes, moved into her downtown penthouse overlooking the city skyline, and let Garrett believe he was orchestrating the greatest escape of his life.
Garrett didn't call to check on her emotional state. His communications came via email through his attorney—cold, clinical demands for immediate asset disclosures and an expedited separation agreement. He was in a rush. Sienna, it seemed, had expensive tastes and zero patience for sharing a man with a legally binding marriage certificate.
On Tuesday afternoon, Naomi sat at her desk reviewing the finalized audit trail for TechVista Solutions. The evidence was damning. Sienna Brooks hadn’t just faked travel expenses; she had funneled thousands of dollars into a shell company registered under an alias—an alias that used an IP address traced directly back to her personal laptop.
The intercom on Naomi’s desk buzzed.
“Ms. Bennett?” her executive assistant, Chloe, said through the speaker. “Harold Kim, the Vice President of Marketing at TechVista, is on line two. He’s reviewing the departmental restructuring report you requested.”
“Put him through, Chloe.”
A click echoed, followed by the nervous, breathless voice of Harold Kim. “Ms. Bennett? Hello. I’m—well, I’m looking at the preliminary audit findings for my division, specifically regarding Sienna Brooks.”
“What are your conclusions, Mr. Kim?” Naomi asked, her tone smooth and professional, devoid of any personal animosity.
“Frankly, I’m shocked,” Harold stammered, sounding genuinely distressed. “We always suspected her numbers were soft, but these discrepancies in the travel and entertainment budget… it’s tens of thousands of dollars. And the unauthorized vendor payments? I had no idea. If I had known, I would have flagged this months ago.”
“You didn’t know because her previous supervisor was too lazy to audit the marketing spend,” Naomi said calmly. “That’s why Bennett Capital acquired TechVista. We don't tolerate inefficiency, and we certainly don't tolerate financial misconduct.”
“What would you like me to do?” Harold asked, his voice trembling slightly. “Should I issue a formal reprimand? Put her on a performance improvement plan?”
“No,” Naomi replied, a cold smile touching her lips. “Don’t do anything yet. Let her finish her quarterly presentation this Thursday afternoon. Let her present her grand marketing strategy to the executive board—including myself. Let her build her confidence right up until the moment it shatters.”
“Understood, Ms. Bennett. Thursday afternoon.”
“And Mr. Kim?”
“Yes?”
“Make sure all financial records are locked in a secure digital vault accessible only to my office after the meeting concludes. We want everything airtight.”
“Consider it done.”
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Naomi hung up the phone and walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows. Down on the street, tiny yellow cabs crawled through the afternoon traffic. Somewhere out there, Garrett was likely sitting in a trendy cafe with Sienna, laughing about how easily he had pulled the wool over his wife's eyes, discussing which expensive neighborhood they would move into once the divorce settlement cleared.
They had no idea that the ground beneath their feet was made of glass, and Naomi was holding the hammer.
