Chapter 2 - THE MOMENT MY HUSBAND SAW ME
My husband stopped walking.
The warmth on his face disappeared so quickly that even Jang Chin Tong noticed.
For one second, nobody moved.
Then Shiaoza looked at me.
“Lena?”
That single word changed the hallway.
Not because the employees suddenly understood who I was.
But because President Shiao clearly knew the “intern.”
Tong Tong glanced at him.
Then at me.
Her smile faltered.
“You know her?”
My husband did not answer immediately.
That hesitation told me more than any answer could have.
He looked at the employees gathered around us.
Then at Jang.
Then finally back at me.
“What are you doing here?”
I almost laughed.
Not because the question was funny.
Because I owned 18 percent of the company.
I had spent six years running our West Coast division.
Three weeks earlier, the board had voted unanimously to appoint me chief executive officer after Chairman Park’s retirement.
Shiaoza knew the vote was happening.
He did not know the result had become official that morning.
Apparently, neither did anyone else.
I said quietly:
“I work here.”
Tong Tong recovered first.
She gave a small laugh.
“President Shiao, she refused to identify herself.”
That was not true.
Nobody had asked.
My husband looked uncomfortable.
“Tong Tong.”
There it was again.
Not Secretary Jang.
Not Ms. Jang.
Tong Tong.
She immediately softened.
“I was only enforcing policy.”
I looked at him.
He knew me well enough to recognize the expression on my face.
He also knew better than to pretend he didn’t understand the real problem.
Still, he tried.
“Lena, can we discuss this privately?”
That answer told everyone something.
Unfortunately for him, it told me something too.
I folded my arms.
“Which part?”
He looked toward the employees.
“The misunderstanding.”
“Was the watch a misunderstanding?”
Tong Tong’s hand moved.
Barely.
But I saw it.
So did Shiaoza.
His eyes dropped to her wrist.
The color left his face.
Nobody else in the hallway knew why.
I did.
And now he knew I knew.
“Lena.”
His voice lowered.
“Not here.”
That sentence made something inside me go still.
Ten years of marriage.
Ten years of standing beside this man at funerals, hospital rooms, business dinners, Christmas mornings, airports.
He did not say:
That watch isn’t what you think.
He did not say:
I can explain.
He said:
Not here.
Which meant there was something to explain.
Tong Tong looked between us.
Then laughed nervously.
“It was a gift.”
I turned toward her.
“From whom?”
Her chin lifted.
“President Shiao.”
The hallway went silent.
My husband closed his eyes for half a second.
That was enough.
I looked at him.
“You gave it to her.”
Tong Tong smiled again.
Now triumphantly.
Apparently she thought she had just won.
Shiaoza stepped closer.
“Lena, please.”
“Wasn’t that watch supposed to go to your mother?”
His face tightened.
Tong Tong’s smile weakened.
“I can explain.”
“Good.”
I nodded.
“Explain.”
He looked around.
Not here.
Again.
He did not say it this time.
He didn’t have to.
And that was when the executive elevator opened behind him.
Five board members stepped out.
Chairman Park came first.
Seventy-two years old.
Silver-haired.
The man who had built the company with my father-in-law thirty-eight years earlier.
His face lit up when he saw me.
“There you are.”
Every employee in the hallway turned.
Chairman Park walked directly past Shiaoza.
Past Tong Tong.
Toward me.
He held out both hands.
“Chief Executive Lee.”
Nobody breathed.
Tong Tong’s face emptied.
Chairman Park smiled.
“Welcome home.”
I shook his hand.
“Thank you.”
Someone behind us dropped a folder.
The sound echoed.
One of the employees who had told me interns used the service elevator covered her mouth.
Tong Tong stared at me.
Then at my husband.
Then at Chairman Park.
“No.”
The word came out before she could stop it.
Chairman Park frowned.
“Excuse me?”
Tong Tong looked almost frightened now.
“She’s the new CEO?”
Chairman Park’s expression changed.
“Yes.”
He looked around.
“I assumed the announcement had gone out.”
The head of corporate communications went pale.
“It was scheduled for eight.”
I checked the wall clock.
7:43.
Seventeen minutes.
That was all.
For seventeen minutes, I had been nobody important enough to respect.
I found that extremely useful.
Chairman Park looked at my plain clothes.
Then at the crowd.
“What happened?”
Nobody answered.
Tong Tong immediately stepped forward.
“Nothing.”
I looked at her.
That reflex interested me.
Chairman Park turned toward me.
“Chief Executive Lee?”
I could have humiliated her.
I could have described every insult.
The custodian comment.
The intern threat.
The stairs.
The claim that she controlled everybody working under my husband.
Instead, I said:
“I was learning how the building operates.”
Chairman Park smiled.
“On your first morning?”
“Yes.”
I looked toward the service elevator.
“And apparently I learned more than expected.”
Employees lowered their eyes.
Tong Tong’s face remained pale.
My husband stared at me.
He knew that tone.
I was not protecting anyone.
I was postponing judgment until I understood the system.
That was much more dangerous.
Chairman Park clapped once.
“Well, let’s get upstairs.”
Then he looked toward the executive elevator.
Tong Tong stepped aside immediately.
For the first time.
I didn’t move.
Chairman Park glanced back.
“Lena?”
I looked toward the woman who had whispered to me earlier.
The employee who had said five flights of stairs were normal.
“What’s your name?”
She looked terrified.
“Emily Chen.”
“What floor do you work on?”
“Sixty-six.”
“And your badge won’t operate the executive elevator?”
“No.”
“How long?”
She swallowed.
“Almost two years.”
I looked at the other employees.
“How many people above sixty-three have the same problem?”
Slowly, hands rose.
Seven.
Then twelve.
Then nearly everyone standing there who was not management.
My husband’s face hardened.
“Why wasn’t I told?”
That sentence nearly made me laugh.
Tong Tong answered first.
“It was an access-control decision.”
“Whose?”
She hesitated.
“Mine.”
My husband stared.
“You restricted employee elevator access?”
“For executive privacy.”
“I never approved that.”
Tong Tong’s face changed.
“You said you didn’t want lower-level staff interrupting executives.”
Shiaoza looked stunned.
“I said I didn’t want people using the executive floor as a shortcut.”
“You told me to handle it.”
There it was.
The phrase that would haunt the next several weeks.
You told me to handle it.
My husband’s authority.
Her interpretation.
Everyone else paying the price.
I turned toward security.
“Effective immediately, anyone whose job requires access above the sixty-third floor gets elevator access appropriate to their job.”
The security director nodded.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Tong Tong started:
“But—”
I looked at her.
One look.
She stopped.
Then I addressed the employees.
“No one takes five flights of stairs because someone decided job titles determine who deserves an elevator.”
Emily Chen looked like she might cry.
That bothered me more than gratitude should.
Chairman Park smiled faintly.
“I suspect we chose correctly.”
My husband did not smile.
We rode upstairs.
This time Tong Tong did not enter.
She stood in the hallway as the doors closed.
Her confidence had disappeared.
But the watch remained on her wrist.
I looked at Shiaoza.
He looked at the floor.
“Tell me now.”
Chairman Park glanced between us.
“I can give you privacy.”
“No.”
My husband looked up.
“Lena.”
I kept my voice calm.
“Did you buy that watch with the money I transferred for your mother’s birthday?”
His face tightened.
“Yes.”
Chairman Park immediately looked away.
That was almost worse.
“And you gave it to your secretary.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Shiaoza rubbed his forehead.
“My mother refused it.”
I stared.
“She refused it?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Two weeks ago.”
“Where?”
“At her house.”
I nodded.
Then I took out my phone.
Shiaoza’s face changed.
“Lena.”
I called his mother.
She answered on the fourth ring.
“Sweetheart?”
“Mom, quick question.”
My husband closed his eyes.
I continued.
“Did Shiaoza bring you the white Valois watch I bought for your birthday?”
Silence.
Then:
“What watch?”
My husband went completely still.
His mother continued.
“He gave me flowers.”
I looked at him.
“Did you refuse a watch?”
“No.”
Her voice sounded confused.
“Why would I refuse a watch?”
I ended the call.
Nobody inside the elevator spoke.
Then the doors opened onto the sixty-eighth floor.
I stepped out.
My husband followed.
“Lena.”
I turned.
He looked genuinely frightened now.
Not of losing his job.
Of losing me.
“The watch is not what you think.”
I stared at him.
“That sentence is three floors late.”
He swallowed.
“I did give it to her.”
“I know.”
“But I’m not sleeping with her.”
Chairman Park quietly walked away.
Smart man.
I looked at my husband.
“Do you think that’s the only betrayal available in a marriage?”
His face changed.
I continued.
“You lied about a gift I chose for your mother.”
“Yes.”
“You gave it to a woman who apparently uses your name to threaten employees.”
“Yes.”
“She believes she can destroy someone’s career because you will protect her.”
His jaw tightened.
“I didn’t know that.”
“No.”
I looked toward the closed elevator.
“You don’t seem to know a lot about what happens under your name.”
That hurt him.
Good.
Then his phone rang.
He ignored it.
I almost respected that.
Almost.
He said:
“Let me explain everything.”
I looked at the office that had my new name on the glass.
CEO — LENA LEE.
Then back at him.
“Not yet.”
He frowned.
“Why?”
“Because first I’m going to find out whether your secretary thinks she owns only your elevator…”
I looked down the hallway.
“…or the rest of my company too.”
And before my husband could answer, the chief financial officer walked toward me carrying a red folder.
His face was pale.
“Ms. Lee.”
“What?”
He lowered his voice.
“You asked us last week to flag unusual executive expenses before your first day.”
“Yes.”
He handed me the folder.
“We found them.”
My stomach tightened.
“How unusual?”
He looked toward my husband.
Then back at me.
“Secretary Jang has charged nearly four hundred thousand dollars to President Shiao’s executive account over eighteen months.”
My husband went white.
I looked at him.
“You knew?”
He said nothing.
May you like
And once again, silence gave me an answer I didn’t want.
---
Related Stories
