All Chapters of THE BOSS BEAST: Chapter 1
- Chapter 10
13 chapters
CHAPTER 1 — THE ROOM THAT DIDN’T LISTEN
The boardroom was already loud when Ethan Blackwood walked in. Not loud with voices, loud with ego. “I’m telling you, the problem is marketing,”Richard Hale snapped, slamming his palm on the polished table. “We don’t need another internal review. We need a bigger budget.”“That’s the third budget increase this quarter,” a woman at the far end said. “Sales are still down.”“Because you don’t push hard enough,”Richard shot back. “You wait for permission.”Ethan paused at the door. Twenty-two years old. Fresh suit. Cheap tie. A graduate degree that meant nothing in this room. No one noticed him. He took the empty seat at the edge of the table, opened his notebook, and listened.Richard Hale, CEO, founder, self-declared genius, paced like a general who hadn’t realized the war was already lost.“The numbers will turn,”Richard said. “They always do.”“They haven’t,” the CFO replied carefully.“Production costs are bleeding us. Logistics”“Temporary,”Richard cut in. “Everything is tempo
CHAPTER 2 — THE EMPTY CHAIR
The chair Ethan used to occupy was still empty. No one mentioned it, but everyone noticed. Richard Hale stood at the head of the boardroom, jacket off, sleeves rolled up like a man ready for battle, except the enemy was already inside the walls.“This is unacceptable.”His voice cracked across the table. “Quarterly losses have doubled. Suppliers are shortening payment terms. Logistics missed deadlines again.”He slammed a report down. “Someone explain to me how this happened.”No one spoke. The silence was thick, accusing.Richard’s eyes moved from face to face. “I’m waiting.”The CFO cleared his throat. “Sir, the indicators were there months ago. We flagged”“You flagged nothing,”Richard snapped. “You sent me spreadsheets full of optimism.”“They were based on the strategy you approved.”Richard scoffed. “Don’t start shifting blame.”A woman from operations leaned forward. “We’re not shifting blame. We’re drowning. Warehouses are stalled, distributors are”“Enough,”Richard cut in.
CHAPTER 3 — THE CRACK IN THE THRONE
The pay cut notice lay in the center of the table like a dead thing.SALARIES TEMPORARILY REDUCED TO 60%No one touched it. No one needed to. “This is not a collapse,”Richard Hale said, voice tighter than usual. “It’s a recalibration.”A few people exchanged looks. “A recalibration doesn’t empty savings accounts,” someone muttered.Richard’s head snapped up. “Speak clearly or don’t speak at all.The room fell silent again, but it was a different silence now. Not fear. Resentment.The CFO adjusted his glasses. “Staff morale is deteriorating fast. We’ve had six resignations since yesterday.”“Let them go,”Richard said. “Anyone loyal will stay.”“Loyalty doesn’t pay rent,” a woman from HR said quietly.Richard exhaled, rubbed his face, then, surprisingly, sat downThat alone startled them. “Alright,”he said after a moment. “Enough emotion. I want solutions.”The word solutions hung there, strange and unfamiliar. Daniel’s chair was still empty.The operations manager leaned forward cau
CHAPTER 4 — THE IMPORTED ANSWER
The man arrived with an accent and confidence. That was enough.“This,”Richard Hale announced, standing beside him, “is Dr. Adrian Volkov.”Polite applause filled the boardroom. “International restructuring expert,”Richard continued. “He’s flown in from Europe. Worked with multinational firms. Turnarounds. Recoveries. Success.”Volkov nodded slightly, hands clasped behind his back, calm and assured. Richard smiled, triumphant. “He will get us back to where we belong.”Relief spread through the room. Not belief, relief. People wanted something to hold onto. “We’re honored,”the CFO said. Volkov inclined his head. “Let’s begin.”An hour later, the screens were filled with charts, projections, and the same strategy they’d been running for months. Volkov studied them quietly.Too quietly. Richard watched him closely. “Well?”Volkov turned. “This plan is actually… solid.”Richard’s smile widened instantly. “I said so.”“Yes,”Volkov continued, “the structure is sound. The assumptions are
CHAPTER 5 — THE FIVE STEPS
The shouting started before anyone reached the boardroom. “You are a waste of resources!”The voice cut through the corridor like shattered glass. Staff froze at their desks. Doors cracked open. “You came here talking like a savior,”Richard Hale roared, “and all you’ve brought is bad luck!”Inside the executive office, Dr. Adrian Volkov stood stiff, face pale but controlled.“I followed the approved strategy,”Volkov said carefully. “The data supported”“The data?”Richard snapped. “We’ve lost more money in two weeks than we lost in three months before you arrived.”“That suggests the issue predates me.”“That suggests you are incompetent,”Richard shot back. Volkov’s jaw tightened. “You hired me to stabilize execution, not to rewrite leadership”Richard slammed his desk. “Don’t lecture me in my own company.”A long silence followed. Then Richard pointed at the door. “You’re done. Pack your things.”Volkov stared. “You’re firing me?”“Yes,”Richard said flatly. “Consider this experim
CHAPTER 6 — THE NAME NO ONE COULD AVOID
The room felt smaller than it used to. Not because the walls had moved, but because hope had. The executives sat around the long table, shoulders slumped, ties loosened, eyes hollow.The screens on the wall glowed with numbers no one wanted to read anymore. Richard Hale stood at the head of the boardroom. Not pacing this time. Standing still. That alone unsettled them. “With the way things are going,”Richard said slowly, his voice stripped of its old force, “we may completely shut down in less than eight months.”No one gasped. No one reacted. They already knew. He swallowed, then added quietly, “If nothing changes.”A heavy silence followed. Eight months. Not a threat. Not drama. A countdown. Richard exhaled and placed both palms on the table. “People… what can we do?”The question hung in the air, fragile and dangerous. This wasn’t the Richard Hale they knew. This wasn’t command. This was uncertainty. The CFO cleared his throat. “We can renegotiate”“We’ve tried,”someone cut in. “
CHAPTER 7 — THE VOICE AT HOME
The house was quiet. Too quiet for a man whose mind wouldn’t stop shouting. Richard Hale sat on the edge of the leather sofa, tie loosened, jacket folded beside him like something he no longer trusted.The television played without sound, images flickering meaninglessly across the screen. Across the room, his wife, Margaret, sat with a book in her lap she hadn’t turned a page of in over ten minutes.Richard cleared his throat. She didn’t look up. “Margaret,”he said. The sound of her name felt unfamiliar in his mouth. He noticed that. Didn’t like that he noticed it. “Yes?”she replied calmly. He shifted. “I wanted to ask you something.”That made her look up. Slowly. Carefully. “When last,”she said, “have you ever asked me anything?”The question wasn’t sharp. That made it worse.Richard frowned. “That’s not fair.”She tilted her head slightly. “Isn’t it?”He exhaled. “I’m serious.”“So am I.”Silence stretched between them, thick, practiced, old. Richard rubbed his palms together. “
CHAPTER 8 — THE ARGUMENT INSIDE HIS HEAD
The message reached him before he reached his office. Richard Hale stepped out of the elevator, phone pressed to his ear, his jaw tightening with every word.“…Six?”he repeated. “They didn’t resume?”A pause. “Yes, sir. No notice.”Richard stopped walking. Six workers. Gone. Not sick. Not late. Gone. “Terminate them,”he said flatly. “Effective immediately.”The voice on the other end hesitated. “Sir”“Did you hear me?”Richard snapped. “All six. Sack them.”“Yes, sir.”The call ended. Richard stood there for a moment, staring down the hallway. Desks were emptier than they used to be. Conversations stopped when he passed. Eyes dropped.Fear had replaced respect. He entered his office and shut the door harder than necessary. Six more. He loosened his tie and dropped into his chair, staring at the wall without seeing it.Eight months. That number mocked him now. His desk phone sat untouched. His laptop screen glowed with unread reports. didn’t open them.Instead, a voice echoed in his
CHAPTER 9 — THE LAST MEETING
The meeting room filled slowly that morning. No one rushed. No one joked. People took their seats like mourners attending a funeral they already knew the outcome of. Richard Hale arrived last. He didn’t carry files. Didn’t carry reports. Didn’t even carry anger. He carried finality.He stood at the head of the table, looked at the faces before him, some familiar, some already halfway gone, and cleared his throat. “I won’t waste your time,”he said calmly. “I think this will be our last meeting.”A ripple passed through the room. “This company,”Richard continued, “can no longer sustain itself. I have made up my mind.”He paused, then delivered it cleanly. “We are shutting down.”A sharp inhale. A stifled gasp. A chair scraping backward. No one spoke. Richard nodded, as if confirming a decision already stamped.“I will work with legal and finance to manage the closure. Severance will be discussed where possible.”Where possible. The words tasted cruel. He folded his hands. “That is al
CHAPTER 10 — THE NAME THAT REFUSED TO DIE
The room was silent. Not the awkward kind. The heavy kind.Richard Hale stood at the head of the table again, hands resting on the polished wood, eyes moving slowly from face to face. The words spoken in the last meeting still hung in the air like smoke that refused to clear. He exhaled.Then spoke. “Does anyone else,”he said calmly, “have anything to say?”No anger. No shouting. Just a question. People shifted in their seats. No one raised a hand. Richard nodded once, as if confirming what he already believed. “Good,”he said. “Then”A hand went up. Everyone turned.It was a woman. Mid-thirties. Calm eyes. One of the few senior staff who had survived years without being sacked, mostly because she spoke little. Richard paused. His eyes rested on her hand. She had never raised it before.“What is your name?”he asked. “Amara,”she replied softly. Richard gestured. “Speak.”She stood slowly, smoothing her jacket, gathering herself. “Sir,”she began, respectful but firm, “I don’t intend