Rebecca's Evil Intentions

For years, Rebecca had wondered about the manila folder Sean kept hidden in his office. He had always been particular about it, and although she had occasionally considered satisfying her curiosity, she had resisted the temptation to look through it herself. Now that he had entrusted it to her before leaving to refresh himself, she could finally discover what had warranted such secrecy.

The opening pages concerned his previous employer, a company absorbed three years earlier by a revenue-based financing firm. Most of the material was familiar enough: acquisition terms, restructuring schedules, executive appointments and the usual carefully worded announcements about efficiency and long-term profitability. One name appeared repeatedly throughout the documents. Kobi Broctky, a senior executive involved in overseeing the merger, had subsequently become the principal architect of a restructuring programme that dismissed more than a thousand employees in a single afternoon.

The accompanying financial statements made the arrangement considerably more interesting. Broctky had overseen an aggressive reduction in operating expenditure, improving the firm's margins enough to contribute to an executive compensation package worth $154 million, distributed among a select group of senior executives. Rebecca checked the figures again, more interested in the calculation than surprised by it. The redundancies had occurred shortly before the performance period used to determine the bonuses, allowing Broctky and his colleagues to benefit handsomely from the resulting improvement in profitability. An impressive amount of money to extract from a restructuring, although the connection between the layoffs and the executive payouts had been left rather conspicuously documented.

What followed was even more revealing. Having dismissed over a thousand employees, the company had subsequently attempted to enforce the restrictive covenants contained in their employment agreements. The correspondence bearing Broctky's authorisation made it clear that these former employees were expected to observe their non-compete obligations regardless of the circumstances under which their employment had ended. Rebecca read one of the letters twice, her amusement growing as she considered the calculation behind it. Oh, he was a nasty piece of work.

A thousand newly unemployed people, many with mortgages, families and little appetite for expensive litigation, were hardly in an ideal position to challenge a well-funded corporation. They had just watched their employer dismiss an entire workforce in an afternoon, and now its legal department was threatening them with potentially ruinous consequences if they accepted work with competitors. Broctky hardly needed the restrictions to withstand judicial scrutiny if enough frightened employees chose to obey them rather than risk finding out. Rebecca could appreciate the effectiveness of that particular approach, although she was less impressed by the care taken in drafting the agreements themselves.

Several clauses appeared to cover entire sectors rather than particular competitors or confidential information, making the company's claim to an ongoing commercial interest in restraining employees whose positions had just been declared redundant an awkward argument at best. Whether a court would uphold such restrictions depended on considerably more than Broctky's confident assertions, and given the breadth of the language used, she suspected he had been counting on never having to defend them. Frightening a thousand people into compliance was one thing; leaving so much room for someone to question the legitimacy of those threats was quite another.

Among the correspondence was Sean's redundancy notice, followed by the warning he had received concerning the consequences of accepting employment within his former industry. Further documents traced his unsuccessful applications, withdrawn opportunities and eventual move into a field only tangentially related to his original qualifications. Rebecca worked through the dates carefully, occasionally returning to an earlier page to compare the details and establish how one decision had led to another.

Three years of living with Sean had given her ample opportunity to appreciate his intelligence, work ethic and infuriating ability to identify weaknesses in her own proposals. She knew precisely how capable he was, having spent considerably longer than those three years trying to outperform him. Few things had irritated her quite so reliably as watching him justify his confidence with another piece of work she could find no legitimate fault with, particularly when she had been looking forward to demonstrating exactly why her qualifications and position made her his superior.

And now she understood why a man of Sean's abilities had ended up in their profession. Some corporate bastard had frightened him out of his own.

Rebecca settled back in her chair, supporting the weight of her stomach as she adjusted herself. A faint kick beneath her palm earned an absent caress while she considered the documents spread across the desk. Three years of living together, sharing practically everything and preparing to welcome their first child, yet Sean had never thought to show any of this to her or Raina. She found that almost insulting, although she knew him well enough to understand why he had kept it to himself.

Asking for favours had never come easily to him, especially when he thought someone might be inconvenienced on his behalf. Even with a perfectly legitimate grievance, he would exhaust every reasonable alternative before deciding somebody deserved to suffer for it. Rebecca found that decency both endearing and infuriating, particularly when it left him carrying burdens neither she nor Raina would have hesitated to share.

Fortunately, she had never suffered from the same restraint.

The next page contained Broctky's corporate photograph and a brief professional biography. Expensive suit, carefully managed smile, and a list of accomplishments arranged to suggest that every successful transaction had been the product of his personal brilliance. Rebecca had known plenty of men like him, ambitious executives who mistook their titles for proof of superior intelligence and rarely looked quite so impressive once someone examined the work behind them.

A quick search brought up the firm's current leadership page and several interviews Broctky had given following the acquisition, each presenting the restructuring as a necessary correction to an inefficient business model. One financial publication had even praised his discipline and exceptional ability to identify opportunities for improving shareholder returns. Rebecca snorted at that. He had certainly identified an opportunity, and a remarkably profitable one at the expense of a thousand former employees.

Further searches into his directorships, previous employers and professional associations revealed several familiar names, including two executives she had encountered at industry functions and a fund representative she knew socially. His connections were respectable enough, although considerably less extensive than his biography seemed determined to imply.

With Broctky's professional connections established, Rebecca turned her attention to his personal life, beginning with the public appearances that might reveal who he associated with outside the office. A charity gala photograph introduced his wife, while an older interview mentioned their children and the importance he supposedly placed on balancing professional success with family life. Holiday photographs, charitable functions and school fundraisers filled in the picture of an affluent, respectable household, although she was less interested in the family photographs themselves than in the people who appeared alongside them.

She began comparing names across the events, noting recurring guests, charitable organisations and the social circles Broctky frequented. His wife and children might know nothing about the redundancies, but the life he had built around his success offered plenty of avenues worth examining. Of particular interest were the people whose approval mattered to him, the institutions that welcomed his donations and the acquaintances who might become considerably less welcoming if his professional reputation suffered.

An award photograph from a fundraising dinner proved useful when Rebecca recognised the prominent businessman standing beside him. Rather than assume the association meant anything, she checked their corporate histories and found several overlapping appointments, one of which led to a pension fund with a substantial investment in Broctky's firm. Among its governance representatives was a woman Rebecca had known for years, someone who took an almost personal pleasure in embarrassing executives whose decisions exposed institutional investors to unnecessary risks.

That was a connection worth keeping. Rebecca made a note of the relevant appointments and returned to the photograph, considering how much of Broctky's standing depended upon relationships with people who had reputations of their own to protect. A satisfied smile spread across her face as she added the governance representative to her growing list of contacts. Sean had apparently been sitting on a rather interesting opportunity for three years.

The prospect of dismantling Broctky's carefully cultivated reputation sent a familiar, pleasurable thrill through Rebecca. She had built much of her career on the satisfaction of bringing arrogant men to heel, watching their qualifications, connections and authority prove insufficient against someone more capable. Few things delighted her more than seeing a man who considered himself untouchable discover that even his closest associates were beginning to question whether he was worth protecting.

Broctky had made the experience considerably more enticing by interfering with her Sean, the father of the child growing inside her, who would probably have spent another three years quietly resenting the man rather than asking for help. The thought softened her smile with affection. Her darling really was a decent man, even if his reluctance to make people suffer for their mistakes could be positively exhausting.

There was no reason she and Raina should suffer from the same deficiency. Rebecca reached for her phone, keeping the documents spread before her as she waited for her lover to answer.

“Hello, darling. Everything all right?” Raina sounded distracted.

“Perfectly. How's your afternoon?”

“Busy. I've just escaped a meeting that should have been an email, and I've got another one in twenty minutes. How's our girl behaving?”

“Very well, although she appears to have decided my bladder makes an excellent footrest.”

Raina laughed. “And Sean?”

“Being Sean, which is actually why I'm calling. He's finally shown me what's in that folder he keeps hidden in his office.”

“Oh? After all this time? What was so important?”

“Before you ask, he gave it to me. Apparently he's been keeping a rather comprehensive record of the charming gentleman responsible for ruining his previous career. Kobi Broctky.”

“Ruining it how?”

“Remember the company he worked for before joining us? Broctky helped engineer the takeover, dismissed more than a thousand employees in a single afternoon and arranged matters so that he and a handful of executives collected a hundred and fifty-four million dollars in bonuses. Quite an achievement, particularly when you consider what he did afterward.”

Rebecca took her through the non-compete restrictions, enjoying the increasingly attentive silence on the other end as she explained how Broctky had threatened the newly redundant employees with legal action if they sought work in their own industry.

“He actually tried to enforce those restrictions after making them redundant?” Raina asked, the distraction gone from her voice.

“Oh, yes. The letters are wonderfully aggressive, although considerably broader than the apparent grounds for enforcing them. And Sean received one himself.”

“Read me the relevant clause.”

Rebecca read out the restriction and the accompanying warning about legal action and recovery of costs, pausing occasionally while Raina took notes on the other end.

“That's aggressive, especially after making them redundant,” her lover observed. “I'd want to see the original agreements and severance terms before saying how much of it would hold up, but some of those restrictions sound extraordinarily broad. Did Broctky personally authorise this?”

“His name is on the instructions for the entire programme. And before you ask, Sean has copies of everything.” Returning to the financial statements, Rebecca found the relationship between the redundancies and executive compensation considerably easier to establish than the enforceability of the restrictions. “I can tell you exactly how Broctky profited from the restructuring and which directors approved it. Whether those non-competes are worth the paper they're printed on is your department.”

“Then send me the complete agreements, darling. I'll want to examine the original wording, particularly anything concerning termination and redundancy. Although I suppose I shouldn't be surprised Sean kept copies of everything. You know how meticulous he is.”

“Except about telling his wives things they ought to have known three years ago.” The familiar irritation returned as Rebecca looked over Sean's correspondence, remembering how often she and Raina had wondered what he kept in that folder. “Honestly, I've half a mind to give him a lecture when he comes back. Imagine keeping something like this to himself when he has a perfectly capable lawyer at home, not to mention a woman who knows half the people sitting on the boards of these companies.”

Raina laughed at that. “I suspect he was trying to avoid exactly what you're doing now.”

“And what would that be?” Rebecca asked, still examining Broctky's list of directorships.

“Planning someone's professional destruction before you've even finished reading the evidence.”

“Darling, I've finished reading the evidence. I'm researching the man.” Another familiar name among his associates earned a satisfied smile, although Raina seemed rather more interested in whether Sean had actually asked for her involvement.

“He has,” Rebecca assured her. “He wants to settle a score. Those were more or less his words when he asked whether I'd rather go home or help him.”

“And naturally you chose the latter,” Raina replied, her amusement making it clear she already knew the answer.

“Darling, please. You know perfectly well I wouldn't pass up an opportunity like this. Although I do intend to have a word with him about hiding the whole business from us for so long.”

“Be gentle with him, Rebecca.”

“I'm always gentle with Sean,” she protested, only to hear her lover repeat her name with considerably more scepticism. “Well, comparatively.”

Their laughter mingled over the phone, and Rebecca shifted in her chair to ease the pressure when their daughter pressed against her ribs. The movement brought a hand to her stomach, and her amusement softened as she thought about Sean. “He's such a good man, you know. Even after everything that bastard did, he went out and built himself another career rather than dragging everybody around him into the mess. And now he's finally decided to do something about it, I imagine he's still worrying about whether he ought to.”

“He does have a conscience,” Raina agreed, the affection in her voice matching Rebecca's own.

“An inconveniently active one.”

“Which you love about him,” her lover reminded her.

“Obviously.” Rebecca rubbed the uncomfortable spot beneath her ribs, smiling at the thought of how quickly Sean would have abandoned whatever he was doing to fuss over her. “I simply don't see why we should allow it to interfere.”

“Fair enough,” Raina conceded, although she remained more cautious about committing to anything before speaking to Sean. “I'd still like to know exactly what he has in mind before we start making promises on his behalf.”

“You can ask him when he gets home, darling.” Rebecca replied, returning to the documents spread across her desk.

“I will. And you should probably remember that you're thirty-five weeks pregnant before you decide to declare war on an entire corporation.”

“Oh, don't start, darling. I'm sitting in a comfortable chair, reading paperwork and talking to my girlfriend. I can think of considerably more strenuous ways to spend an afternoon.”

“That's what worries me,” Raina replied, earning an amused chuckle as Rebecca examined Broctky's photograph once more. He had cultivated an impressive public image, although a surprisingly large part of it depended on the continued goodwill of people whose patience could be exhausted.

“Tell me something. Do you remember Elaine Mercer? The pension fund director we met at that conference?”

“The one who made a chief executive cry over dinner?”

“He deserved it,” Rebecca said cheerfully. “And you'll be delighted to know she's on the governance committee of one of Broctky's largest institutional investors. You remember how she feels about executives who expose shareholders to unnecessary liabilities, particularly after collecting enormous bonuses?”

“Very well. And if these documents establish what you think they do, she might be interested. But I'd like to examine them properly before you put anything in front of her.” Raina paused while Rebecca made another note beside Mercer's name. “That includes establishing what Sean is entitled to disclose. No confidential employment records going to journalists in the meantime.”

“Really, darling, you ought to give me a little credit. I have no intention of ruining a perfectly good opportunity through carelessness. Mercer has quite enough reason to scrutinise Broctky's conduct without my handing her something I shouldn't.”

“I know you wouldn't be careless. That's why I'm taking this seriously.”

Rebecca smiled, appreciating the distinction. Raina understood perfectly well why Mercer's position mattered, and having someone capable of examining the legal implications before any approach was made would make the eventual conversation considerably more productive.

“I'll send you the relevant documents so you can review them. Meanwhile, I'm going to look into his previous acquisitions. Men who find intimidation effective tend to develop a taste for it, and I doubt Broctky discovered the practice three years ago.”

“Perhaps not, but don't assume you'll find something simply because you want to.”

“Oh, I can assure you, darling, that even if this proves to be his sole achievement, I shall make the most of it.”

Raina laughed. “Somehow I don't believe you'll stop looking.”

“You know me far too well.” Rebecca glanced at the time, remembering her lover had another meeting approaching. “Go on, darling. I'll send everything over, and we'll discuss it properly when you're home.”

“Please look after yourself. And our girl.”

“Always. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

With the call finished, Rebecca set her phone beside the folder and followed the corporate connections she had already begun tracing. The other executives who had shared the hundred and fifty-four million dollars interested her considerably more than Broctky's respectable family life. Several remained associated with him, and their involvement in the restructuring offered far more promising avenues of enquiry than his expensive holidays or charitable appearances.

One of those connections led her to an earlier acquisition involving Broctky's previous employer. The announcement had been accompanied by reassuring statements about operational efficiency and long-term growth, but the subsequent restructuring disclosures made rather more interesting reading. Rebecca opened the corresponding financial statements and began comparing the dates of the redundancies with the executive compensation reports, adjusting her position in the chair when her stomach pressed uncomfortably against the desk.

The figures were not yet sufficient to establish a pattern, but the similarities were worth investigating. She added the earlier acquisition to her notes and began tracing the executives who had benefited from it.

It was only when she shifted in her chair again that Rebecca became aware of just how warm she had grown. Her cheeks were flushed, her breathing a little quicker than usual, and the uncomfortable dampness between her thighs suggested that her enthusiasm for the afternoon’s activities had gone rather further than she’d realised. She slid one hand down between her legs, fingers slipping easily against the slickness there, and rested the other over the considerable swell of her stomach as she considered the discovery with growing amusement.

Pregnancy it seemed had certainly made her more sensitive, but she rather doubted hormones alone could account for this. The thought of Sean finally getting justice, of watching the man who had made him suffer lose everything he valued professionally, sent another delicious little thrill through her. She drew her fingers free and brought them to her mouth. The taste was sharp and faintly sweet, the same as the last time she had gone down on Sean after he’d spent the morning at the gym. Smiling to herself, Rebecca returned to the figures, privately wondering what her darling Sean would make of the effect his request was having on her.