I came home three days early because I wanted to catch the people who worked for me when they thought I wasn't watching

On Wednesday morning, I walked out of my private wing and into the main administrative office on the ground floor.

The silence that fell over the room was instantaneous and absolute.

Evelyn Vance dropped her pen, scrambling to her feet, her face breaking into a sycophantic smile. “Mr. Graves! We—we didn't expect you until Friday! Your wing is perfectly prepared, I assure you—”

“Sit down, Evelyn,” I said. I didn't raise my voice. I didn't have to.

I walked over to her desk and dropped Annie Carter’s employee file directly onto her keyboard.

“Explain this to me,” I said.

Evelyn blinked, looking at the name on the tab. “Ah, Annie. Yes. A sweet girl, but a bit slow. She struggles to keep up with the physical demands of the estate. Hence the 'minimum expectations' rating.”

“Slow?” I asked, leaning over the desk. “Yesterday, I watched her fix a twenty-thousand-dollar inventory software crash in under a minute. I watched her diagnose a biometric lock failure. I watched her perform triage on a security guard's knee brace. All while walking on a shattered prosthetic leg that you refused to replace.”

Evelyn’s face drained of color. “Sir, I was simply following the employee handbook! The policy clearly states—”

“The policy,” I interrupted, my voice turning to ice, “was designed to prevent fraud. It was not designed to torture an eighteen-year-old girl who works eighty hours a week between this house and her engineering classes!”

“Engineering classes?” Evelyn stammered. “I... I didn't know.”

“Of course you didn't know. You didn't look at her as a human being. You looked at her as a liability.” I stood up straight, buttoning my suit jacket. “You have exactly one hour to pack your office, Evelyn. You are fired.”

“Mr. Graves, please! I was protecting your bottom line!”

“You were protecting your own ego,” I said coldly. “Leave. Before I have security physically remove you.”