My Husband Left Me For My Best Friend, But He Didn't Know I Owned His Company...

The email arrived during our company's quarterly leadership meeting. "I'm leaving you for Rebecca. We're moving to Boston together. I've already transferred funds from our accounts to cover our fresh start. Sorry, but we both know our marriage has been dead for years." My expression remained neutral as I listened to our CFO's presentation, the only sign that my husband of nine years had just demolished our marriage via email being the slight whitening of my knuckles as I gripped my pen. None of the executives seated around the mahogany table noticed anything amiss as I asked pointed questions about the financial projections. My husband had chosen to end our marriage while I sat in the boardroom of the company he thought was his. But Nathan didn't know that I had been the majority shareholder of Pinnacle Innovations for over three years.
My name is Eliza Mitchell, and at 37, I had just received the most callous goodbye in history. But while Nathan was probably gloating over his dramatic exit, imagining me collapsing in tears over his betrayal, I was calmly wrapping up the meeting that would determine the future of his career—a future that, as of this moment, no longer existed.
"Excellent presentation, James," I said to our CFO as the meeting concluded. "Could you stay behind for a moment? There's something we need to discuss." James nodded, his expression curious as the other executives filtered out of the board room. I waited until the heavy oak door closed behind the last of them before I allowed myself a single deep breath. Then I unlocked my phone and showed him Nathan's email.
James's eyes widened as he read it. "Eliza, I'm so sorry—"
"Don't be," I said, my voice steady. "We need to activate Protocol Phoenix immediately."
James stared at me for a beat before understanding dawned. "You've been expecting this."
"The signs have been there for months," I replied, opening my laptop and pulling up a secure folder. "The unexplained absences, the changed passwords, the supposedly 'work-related' trips that never quite aligned with our company calendar. But the final confirmation came eight weeks ago."