The Wedding They'll Never Forget - Chapter 3: Chapter 3

Book: The Wedding They'll Never Forget Chapter 3 2025-10-16

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Claire Winslow wasn't just his secret lover—she was one of our longest-standing employees, practically there since day one. She held a key role in the company, which made things complicated, but also gave me the perfect opportunity to ruin them both. If I played my cards right, I wouldn't just expose their affair—I'd destroy their careers in the process.
I knew I couldn't just blow the whistle without consequences, so instead, I took my time dismantling her position, piece by piece. This was step four.
First, I needed to plant the seeds of doubt. Whenever Claire and I discussed potential business leads, I'd "accidentally" slip her bad intel.
"Hey, Claire," I'd say casually over coffee, "I heard from a contact there's a big investor eyeing our market. Might be worth looking into."
Of course, the deals always fell through. The investors I sent her to were either uninterested or notoriously difficult to work with.
Before long, Claire started fumbling in meetings, looking more and more incompetent in front of the board. Rumors about her failures spread fast, and she had no idea I was the one pulling the strings.
Nobody called her out directly, but the writing was on the wall—she was being phased out. Fewer meetings, fewer requests for her input. It was only a matter of time.
But I didn't stop there. While she was busy chasing dead-end leads, I worked behind the scenes to rally the team around me. I positioned myself as the indispensable leader—the one who got things done.
Every time Claire messed up, I was there to clean up the mess, making sure the team saw me as the steady hand they could trust.
In meetings, I'd drop subtle hints about her poor judgment. "I know Claire thought this deal was promising, but it seems like things didn't pan out… again. Maybe we should rethink our approach."
I never outright blamed her—just enough to make everyone question if she was cut out for leadership.
Behind closed doors, I worked key team members, taking them out for drinks, planting doubts. "Look, I know Claire means well, but she's been making some risky calls lately. We can't afford to keep losing investors."
Slowly, they started seeing me as the real leader. Every mistake she made pushed them further into my corner.
By the time board meetings rolled around, I was the problem solver while Claire struggled to explain why her deals kept collapsing. Her confidence crumbled—she grew defensive, desperate, which only made her mistakes more obvious.
When the moment was right, I struck.
In a critical meeting, I laid out her string of failures, letting the investors and board members grill her with questions she couldn't answer. Then, I made my move—suggesting a vote of no confidence, proposing I take over her responsibilities to "stabilize" the company.
With the groundwork I'd laid, it was effortless. The board voted in my favor, and just like that, Claire was out.
A classic quiet firing—we shuffled her into a dead-end department, making her miserable until she'd have no choice but to quit on her own.
She never saw it coming. Too wrapped up in her affair with my fiancé to realize I'd been orchestrating her downfall from the start.
The best part? She couldn't even blame me without looking like a sore loser.

End of The Wedding They'll Never Forget Chapter 3. Continue reading Chapter 4 or return to The Wedding They'll Never Forget book page.