Chapter 10 - The Sovereign Pair
At 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning, the sun broke over Manhattan, casting brilliant shafts of light across the glass monolith of the Steves Building.
On the forty-second floor, the executive reception area was completely silent.
The corner desk where Penelope Woods had sat for three years was empty. The gray slacks, the beige raincoats, and the tortoiseshell hair clips had been cleared out over the weekend.
The heavy double doors of the corner executive suite opened.
Larkin Steves stepped out into the hallway, wearing a bespoke dark navy suit, his face calm, sharp, and resolute.
Beside him walked Penelope.
She wore a tailored midnight-blue silk suit that hugged her form with sharp elegance, her dark espresso bob perfectly styled, her dark red lipstick striking against her pale skin. Her steel-tipped heels clicked rhythmically against the marble floor as she walked side-by-side with Larkin toward the main boardroom.
Every employee on the forty-second floor stopped what they were doing.
Traders dropped their phones; legal counsels froze mid-step; secretaries stared with open mouths as the woman they had ignored for three years walked past them like royalty.
Larkin didn't look at any of them.
He reached down, taking Penelope’s hand in his broad palm, holding her fingers firmly in front of the entire floor.
They reached the heavy double oak doors of the central boardroom, where thirty senior partners and international directors sat waiting for the quarterly executive address.
Larkin pushed the doors open, stepping into the room with Penelope at his side.
He walked to the head of the massive mahogany table, pulled out the high-backed leather armchair directly to the right of his own, and looked at his board of directors.
"Good morning, gentlemen," Larkin’s baritone echoed through the room with absolute authority. "Before we begin today's operational review, I would like to introduce our new Chief Operating Officer and equal partner."
He turned his head, looking at Penelope with a deep, fierce devotion that made every person in the room hold their breath.
"This is Penelope Woods," Larkin said clearly. "And her word in this firm is law."
Penelope sat down in the leather chair, crossing her long legs, her steel-tipped heels striking the floor with a quiet, decisive clack.
She looked around the room—at the powerful men who had spent three years passing her desk without a second glance—and smiled a slow, radiant, terrifying smile.
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"Good morning, gentlemen," Penelope said, her rich velvet voice commanding the silent room. "Let us look at the numbers."
And as the sun rose over the city, Penelope Woods knew that she would never be invisible again.
