Who's the Queen Now?

I'm the only daughter of the Genovese family in New York. To test my husband Jayden Henderson's competence, my Dad had me stage a surprise inspection at the company he runs. The moment I walked in, some bleach-blonde in a tight dress was staring at the shredder like she'd just discovered fire. "Oh my God, this thing is so cool. Can it literally shred anything?" She said that as she grabbed a contract off someone's desk and started feeding it in. A coworker dove across three desks to stop her: "Hazel, no! That's a million-dollar account!" "Oopsie! My bad!" She giggled, then her hand holding the cup gave a little tremor, and the whole drink splashed right onto the power switch. Sparks flew. The lights died. Twenty computers crashed simultaneously. The entire office sat in stunned, furious silence. I grabbed the nearest intern and asked who hired her. He whispered back in terror: "That's Mrs. Henderson—the CEO's wife. Word is she actually owns this company." Mr. Henderson? I speed-dialed Dad right there: "Dad, forget the inspection. Get the divorce papers ready. Jayden and I have a bone to pick." Chapter 1 Dad sent me to the company to evaluate Jayden. He said it was routine inspection, told me not to stress about it. I figured I'd go through the motions, tick some boxes, call it a day. So I told the receptionist I was an auditor from corporate, and she respectfully swiped me through with her keycard. But the second I stepped into the open office, I saw her. This woman, dressed in a skintight black bodycon skirt, crouched in front of the shredder like it was the most fascinating thing she'd ever seen. Her eyes were practically sparkling. "Oh my God, this thing is so cool. Can it literally shred anything?" Without thinking, she grabbed a document from the desk next to her. The cover was stamped in red letters: "MERGER CONTRACT." She didn't even hesitate—just started shoving the contract toward the shredder. A guy with glasses nearby went absolutely pale. He basically threw himself at her, nearly tackling her to snatch the contract away. "Holy shit, Hazel! Shouldn't you be in your office watching videos or something?" His voice was shaking with terror. "What are you doing out here? This contract goes to print this afternoon!" The woman got bumped by him but wasn't mad at all—just giggled and waved her empty cup around. "Watching videos all day is so dull. I'm parched." The coworker let out a relieved breath, clutching that contract like his life depended on it. He lowered his voice, practically begging: "Then please, go grab some water and drink it back in the office, okay? Doesn't Jayden's office have its own Keurig?" The woman pouted. "That coffee tastes nasty. I want some of that good stuff from the break room." She totally ignored his about-to-cry expression and headed toward the kitchenette. Watching this whole trainwreck, my temples were pounding. I grabbed a young-looking intern nearby. "Who is she?" The intern glanced at me, then quickly looked back at the woman's retreating figure, eyes full of dread. He put his finger to his lips. "Shh, keep it down." He leaned close to my ear, voice barely a whisper. "That's our boss Jayden's wife, Hazel Patterson." My stomach dropped. Suddenly, every weird thing I'd heard about Jayden lately clicked into place. The intern kept talking. "Word is she actually owns this company, so she's like, the real queen bee around here. You just start? You'll get used to it." He sighed, his face showing the kind of bone-deep exhaustion that only comes from being put through hell. "Usually she just hangs in Jayden's corner office, scrolling TikTok and binge-watching Netflix. Doesn't really mess with us." "Jayden must be out at client meetings today, so nobody's babysitting her. That's why she's out here wrecking everything." Listening to him, my head was buzzing. She's the boss's wife. Then what the hell am I? The intern noticed my expression and looked concerned. "You good? You look kinda rough." I shook my head and forced a smile. "I'm fine, just... wow. Can't believe the company has people like that. Real eye-opener." The intern shrugged with a bitter laugh. "You get used to it. At least she doesn't actually do anything major. We all just deal and pray she gets bored and goes back to her office." I stayed quiet. Doesn't do anything major? That contract she almost shredded? That would've tanked a billion-dollar deal. Who's gonna eat those losses? I watched Hazel bounce out of the kitchenette. I pulled out my phone, about to call Dad. But then I thought better of it and put it away. Just leaving now would let Jayden off way too easy. Dad sent me here to evaluate his abilities. Looks like his abilities and his character are completely fucked. I wanted to see how far this company had gone down the drain under his management. I straightened my blazer and walked to reception. "Hi, I'm Aurora Genovese from corporate, here for project auditing." "Could you set me up with a temporary workstation? Somewhere quiet would be perfect." "Also, today's inspection is confidential—I'd prefer Mr. Jayden doesn't know I was here." The receptionist nodded respectfully. I found a corner desk and sat down, keeping an eye on Hazel from across the room. She was studying the fire alarm with her fresh Starbucks, looking like she was seriously considering whether to yank that thing. Chapter 2 Jayden was a no-show all morning. Hazel must've gotten bored holed up in the executive suite, because she drifted back out like she owned the place. She started by poking at someone's design mockups they'd been fine-tuning since 8 a.m., rearranging elements for no reason. Then she wandered over to random desks and started mashing keys, messing up spreadsheets, deleting formulas, renaming tabs. Everyone froze when she got close, their faces stiff with forced politeness, then scrambled to undo the damage the second she moved on. Eventually, she made her way to the water cooler. Probably thirsty again. She grabbed a paper cup, pressed the lever—and whether it was genuine clumsiness or pure sabotage, I couldn't tell—her hand jerked at the wrong moment. A full cup of water flew in a clean arc and splashed square against the wall beside the cooler. Right where the main electrical panel was mounted. There was a loud POP, followed by a shower of sparks. Every light in the office died instantly. Monitors went black across the floor. A beat of silence, then chaos erupted—screams, curses, the whole nine yards. "My code! I've been coding all morning and it's not saved!" "My Photoshop files! The client's been blowing up my phone and I was literally two minutes from done!" "My quarterly reports—they're due at 2 p.m.! I'm completely screwed!" The IT manager burst out of his office, took one look at Hazel standing there with her innocent doe-eyes next to the smoking panel, and went rigid. His jaw tightened, fists clenched at his sides, but whatever was on the tip of his tongue, he swallowed it whole. Hazel spoke first, her voice dripping with whiny indignation. "Ugh, what just happened? This electrical stuff is so garbage. A little water and it breaks? Why does our company buy such cheap crap?" The nerve. Blaming the equipment while standing in the wreckage she'd caused. Honestly, it was almost impressive. The facilities manager came jogging over, took one look at the fried panel and then at Hazel, and immediately switched into full ass-kissing mode. "Hazel, are you okay? Did the sparks scare you? This is totally not your fault—the wiring's probably outdated. We'll get a crew in ASAP, install a brand-new waterproof system. Don't you worry about a thing. Why don't you go relax in the office and let us handle it?" Hazel pouted. She turned and sauntered back toward Jayden's corner office. The facilities guy wiped the sweat off his forehead and started barking orders at IT. As he passed my temporary desk, I stopped him. "Does this sort of thing happen often?" He glanced at me, clocked that I was from corporate, and his expression soured. He pulled me into the stairwell and lowered his voice. "You're the auditor, right? I probably shouldn't be saying this, but after today..." He let out a heavy sigh. "Look, she's Jayden's princess. We can't touch her. Today Jayden's in Chicago for client meetings, so no one's here to babysit. When he's around, at least he keeps her locked in his office." His face twisted with bitterness. "Last month, she had another 'oopsie'—knocked over her Frappuccino right onto the main server. Corrupted all our data. IT pulled all-nighters for a week trying to recover everything. A whole week of work, gone." "What happened then?" I asked. "Jayden blamed IT for 'inadequate safety protocols' and docked everyone's quarterly bonuses. Said it would 'teach us responsibility.'" My stomach kept sinking. So this was Jayden's leadership style? Let his airheaded 'wife' run rampant while hardworking employees paid the price for her chaos? Jayden. You're something else. Just then, the executive office door cracked open. Hazel poked her head out and called into the dark, silent office: "Ugh, I'm so bored. When's the WiFi coming back? Oh no—my phone's at like 10 percent! Are there any snacks in the break room?" No one answered. The entire floor was dead quiet, thick with suppressed frustration. Chapter 3 IT had just gotten everything back online when my dad called. He needed me to pull some sensitive marketing data—files required for this afternoon's board meeting at our Manhattan headquarters. I had to be handled personally, zero margin for error. I grabbed a USB drive, downloaded the files from the marketing director's computer, and headed to the copy room. I'd just finished printing everything and was organizing the stack with binder clips when the door swung open. Hazel bounced in, holding a bubble tea from the shop downstairs. She spotted the heavy-duty stapler sitting next to me, and her eyes lit up. "Ooh, lemme borrow that real quick—my Hot Cheetos bag totally ripped." She reached for it like it was hers by default. I instinctively pulled the confidential documents and the stapler out of her reach. These files contained seriously classified intel. She swiped at air, stumbled forward from the momentum, and tripped over the printer cord. Her bubble tea went flying—a perfect arc of brown liquid that splattered all over my freshly printed stack. A thick pile of corporate secrets instantly turned into a soggy, illegible mess. Staring at the ruined documents, I couldn't stay quiet anymore. I looked up and locked eyes with her. She showed zero guilt—if anything, she looked annoyed that I hadn't handed over the stapler. My voice came out ice-cold. "Are you going to take responsibility for destroying these documents?" Hazel had clearly never been called out by a regular employee before. She blinked, confused, then her face flushed red with indignation. "Excuse me? How dare you talk to me like that? Do you have any idea who I am?" She drew herself up, all self-importance. "I'm Jayden's wife!" I looked at her and felt absolutely nothing—almost wanted to laugh. "Cool," I said flatly. "Does being Jayden's wife give you a free pass to destroy company property? To completely disregard workplace policies?" My pushback clearly rattled her. Her face twisted with rage. "Um, yeah, it totally does! This whole company belongs to Jayden, which means it's mine! I can do whatever the hell I want!" Her voice went full Karen—screechy, entitled, borderline unhinged. "Who even are you? Some random new girl trying to school me?" Other employees came running at the commotion. When they saw me facing off with Hazel, their faces went pale. A few admin assistants tugged at my sleeve, silently begging me to apologize and back down. I didn't budge. Just held her stare. When I refused to cave, Hazel felt humiliated in front of everyone. She pulled out her phone with a smug, vindictive smile. "Okay, wanna act tough? Think I can't handle some nobody? I'm FaceTiming Jayden right now to show you exactly who runs this place." She hit video call instantly. It connected within seconds. She flipped the phone toward herself, ready to have her "husband" come to her rescue. Chapter 4 The second the video call connected, Hazel's eyes instantly welled up with tears. She flipped the camera toward herself, face crumpling into a devastated expression, and broke into sobs. "Jax, baby, someone's being so mean to me!" "This new girl in the office is like, totally aggressive. I just wanted to borrow the stapler and she wouldn't even let me touch it." "She messed up her own documents by accident and then blamed me for it, and now she wants me to pay for them. She's being such a bitch to me!" She twisted the story completely, weeping like she'd been mortally wounded. Through the speaker, I could hear Jayden's voice—soft, soothing, dripping with indulgence. "Baby, don't cry. Hubby's here. Nobody gets to mess with my princess. I'll handle this." I glanced at the time. He should be at some major industry summit right now. Yet here he was, interrupting high-stakes meetings to coddle his so-called wife's crocodile tears. "Sweetheart, stop crying. Give the phone to her." Jayden's tone shifted instantly—from tender to razor-sharp. He directed his voice toward the background behind Hazel, addressing all of us employees in that commanding, entitled tone that demanded immediate compliance. "Who the hell made my baby upset? Hand her the phone. I'm gonna talk to this person myself. I wanna see who's got the balls to mess with what's mine." Hazel's face lit up with a smug, gloating smile. She shoved the phone right in my face, chin raised in defiance, practically radiating triumph. I took the phone from her hands—calmly, deliberately. My face appeared clearly on the screen. The moment Jayden saw me, his expression froze. Panic flickered across his features, followed by confusion. "Aurora? What are you doing there?" His brows knitted together. "Don't get mad at me! I'll explain everything when I get back!" I stared at that familiar face on the screen. It looked utterly foreign now—pathetic, spineless, unrecognizable. When I didn't respond, just held his gaze with cold silence, his tone turned impatient, almost threatening. "Don't start acting all crazy right now. I've got crucial meetings here—the company's entire future depends on this summit." Acting crazy. He was writing off everything as me being irrational. His stupidity and complete lack of backbone were almost laughable. I looked straight into the camera and said, my voice flat and final: "Perfect, Jayden." "Your leadership skills. Your character. I've seen enough." Before he could react, I tossed the phone back to a completely stunned Hazel. Then I pulled out my own phone, found Dad's number, and hit call. The second he picked up, I spoke—loud enough for the entire copy room and the open office beyond to hear: "Dad, the evaluation's over. Tell Jayden to get his ass back here with divorce papers and meet me at the office."