The next morning, she walked into the glass building downtown, nerves steady, smile calm. She delivered her case flawlessly, backed by numbers and quiet conviction. As the panel thanked her, one executive let slip the name of the case study, “Your insights on the Whitmore Group portfolio were sharp.”
She blinked. Whitmore was Eleanor’s company. Later, a satisfied smugness crept up her spine, thinking she actually knew the state of affairs of her mother-in-law’s company. She saw that not everything was quite as fine as she had been given to understand. She stored away the information for later.