Chapter 7 - JESSICA’S EXPENSE FILE
Jessica broke first.
Not emotionally.
Professionally.
Meridian’s review committee found repeated payments from brand-partnership budgets to vendors connected to Jessica’s college roommate.
The roommate owned a boutique event-production company.
Meridian had used it twenty-six times in two years.
The rates were high.
Not absurdly high.
Enough to raise questions.
Jessica insisted the firm was excellent.
Several executives agreed.
Then investigators found personal events bundled into commercial invoices.
Brendan’s birthday in Miami.
Diane’s sixtieth birthday floral installation.
A Morrison cousin’s engagement dinner.
Portions were repaid later.
Some were not.
Jessica’s attorney asked to negotiate her departure.
Before resigning, Jessica requested one conversation with Cassidy.
Elise advised against it.
Cassidy agreed anyway, with counsel present.
Jessica arrived without the fitted black dresses and perfect blowout she wore to Meridian events.
Jeans.
Gray sweater.
No champagne.
“You hate me.”
Cassidy looked at her.
“I don’t know you well enough.”
Jessica flinched.
“Fair.”
She admitted the affair had started seven months before Cassidy discovered it.
Brendan told her the marriage was already effectively over.
Jessica believed him because Diane told her the same thing.
“That doesn’t excuse what I did at dinner.”
“No.”
“I wanted to humiliate you.”
Cassidy waited.
Jessica’s eyes filled.
“Because he kept comparing us.”
That surprised her.
Brendan told Jessica Cassidy was passive, unambitious, dependent.
Then whenever Jessica demanded commitment, Brendan said Cassidy had never needed reassurance.
If Jessica complained about money, Cassidy was “easygoing.”
If Jessica pushed about marriage, Cassidy was “secure.”
Brendan used each woman as a weapon against the other.
“So you poured champagne on me.”
Jessica nodded miserably.
“I wanted you to look pathetic.”
“I was eight months pregnant.”
“I know.”
“And you thought that made it better?”
“No.”
Jessica cried.
Cassidy did not comfort her.
Before leaving, Jessica said one thing that shifted the investigation.
“You should look at Brendan’s division numbers.”
Cassidy’s expression changed.
“Why?”
“Diane has been moving marketing support into hospitality projects for two years.”
“Moving how?”
Jessica looked at Elise, then back at Cassidy.
“She calls it strategic allocation.”
“And what do you call it?”
“Keeping Brendan’s numbers prettier than they are.”
That was the first allegation involving more than entitlement.
Cassidy immediately recused herself from even receiving the underlying financial review.
If Brendan’s performance numbers were manipulated, she would not be the person deciding whether it happened.
But she finally understood why Diane had fought so aggressively for her son’s promotion.
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Brendan becoming COO would not only elevate him.
It would make years of Diane’s decisions look like successful investment in the company’s future.
