Chapter 13 - Melissa Admitted Why She Chose Diane
By the time the marital mediation began, Melissa and Grant were separated.
Grant did not file for divorce because of a single security token.
He filed because the investigation exposed a broader pattern.
Melissa admitted reading Grant’s private communications with Diane.
Using information from family arguments in corporate discussions.
Telling Grant different versions of Diane’s statements depending on what would increase distance between them.
No fabricated decade-long conspiracy.
Several specific acts.
Then during mediation Grant asked:
“Why my mother?”
Melissa answered:
“Because she never accepted me.”
Diane had indeed been hard on:
her.
When Grant married Melissa four years earlier, Diane questioned whether Melissa’s executive role created conflicts.
She criticized her spending.
Corrected her in meetings.
Once told her:
“You are very good at making presentation look like performance.”
Cruel.
Melissa never forgot.
Then Westbridge.
For Melissa, removing Diane from the process was not only career strategy.
It was finally defeating the woman who had spent years making her feel like an employee who married above her place.
Grant asked:
“So you framed her?”
Melissa looked down.
“I wanted people to doubt her.”
That was more precise.
If the transfer had succeeded, she claimed she planned to reverse it once questions began.
Whether she truly could have:
unknown.
Then:
“I wanted her suspended long enough for Westbridge to move without her.”
Grant stared.
“All of this for a vote?”
“For my future.”
There.
Melissa had turned Diane from difficult mother-in-law into obstacle.
Once someone becomes obstacle, cruelty starts sounding like:
May you like
problem-solving.
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