Acting CEO: The Trophy Girlfriend Strikes Back

A devastating car crash threw my billionaire boyfriend into a deep coma, leaving him hanging by a thread.

Everyone thought I was just some pretty trophy girlfriend surviving off his limitless black card.

They eagerly waited for me to lose my sole backing and end up tossed out on the streets. I found it hilarious.

Instead, I strapped on my redbottom stilettos, marched straight through the front doors with a toptier New York legal team and ironclad documents proving my absolute majority stake, and forcefully took over his entire corporate empire.

Later, when he finally woke up and heard the sheer scale of the wreckage I'd left in my wake, he could only rub his temples and sigh at them. "Why the hell did you people even try to cross her?" Chapter 1 I got the news of Gideon's car crash just as my nail tech was curing the top coat of my last finger under the UV lamp.

I didn't even have a second to admire the flawless manicure before the nightmare dropped. He was in the ER, clinging to life.

I was his widely known, oneandonly woman—in the eyes of the public, Gideon's kept trophy girlfriend. The implied message was clear: my golden ticket had just expired.

I bolted to the hospital. Gideon was still in surgery when the whispers hit my ears—he hadn't been alone in the car. There was another woman. She was in the ER too, a young girl.

Definitely younger than me, considering I was just a couple of years away from turning thirty. The shareholders and his relatives swarmed the hospital corridor.

I caught the shifting, calculating glints in their eyes every time they looked my way. After several agonizing hours staring at the operating room doors, the doctor finally emerged.

Gideon wasn't out of the woods. He was in a coma. As for when—or if—he would wake up, they couldn't give me a straight answer. The crash was still under investigation.

The driver of the other vehicle had died on impact. Gideon's accident threw the company's board into chaos.

Meanwhile, I, his supposed trophy girlfriend, was left running back and forth handling everything with his assistant. The other passenger was doing better.

The doctors estimated she would wake up within a week. "Simon," I asked, cornering his assistant. "What exactly is the relationship between Gideon and that girl?" Just as I expected, Simon shifted his weight, refusing to meet my eyes. "Sloane, I'll be straight with you.

I don't know. I only know Gideon met with Nora a few times. What they had going on… I have no idea." Even his righthand man was keeping his mouth shut tight.

Gideon and I had known each other for over a decade and had been together for five years. This was the first time I realized he kept dirty little secrets.

But I didn't have the luxury of time to dwell on it.

On Gideon's second day in the ICU, his uncle and aunt showed up again. "Sloane, there's no need for you to look after my nephew anymore," Milton—Gideon's blood relative—announced, adjusting his suit jacket.

His wife, Maxine, crossed her arms and raked a disdainful look up and down my body. "Listen here, sweetheart.

You don't even have an engagement ring, and right now, he just got into a car crash with another hot, young thing.

That supplementary credit card of yours is going to get cut off real soon.

You better hurry up and find yourself a new sugar daddy instead of lingering around here." Their implication was glaringly obvious. I was just a toy Gideon was about to throw away.

Even with him lying in a coma, I had zero legal standing as family to care for him.

If my memory served me right, whenever Gideon was awake, this aunt and uncle always kept their tails tucked firmly between their legs. The family had gone bankrupt years ago.

Gideon had built his current empire from scratch, on his own. It had nothing to do with these two.

But Gideon probably still cared a tiny bit about blood ties, so he let their son take a cushy job in the company right after graduation.

In the past, they merely shot me dirty looks, likely assuming I was some lowclass trash who didn't belong.

Now that Gideon was out of the picture, their true, ugly colors were on full display.

Before I could even open my mouth, Maxine stepped into my personal space, blatant greed flashing in her eyes. "And that Beverly Hillslevel penthouse you're currently crashing in?

Gideon bought that.

Since he might never wake up, we, as his legal relatives, will be bringing people over tomorrow to repossess it." "You better pack up your cheap luggage and get the hell out before tonight.

Don't force us to call security to throw you onto the curb." Chapter 2 I let out a sharp laugh. Gideon's immediate family was long dead.

Currently, his closest living blood relative was Milton. If Gideon flatlined, the sole legal heir to his massive estate would be his uncle. I shot a glance at Simon.

Catching my drift instantly, he handed a thick stack of medical bills directly to Milton. "What the hell is this…" Milton muttered, squinting at the paper. "That's the current tab for Gideon's hospital stay," I said flatly. "Since you two are so eager to take over his care, you can handle the payments from now on." Every single piece of lifesupport equipment and experimental drug keeping Gideon breathing was toptier.

The total figure was astronomical. The color drained from their faces instantly.

I slapped a copy of the bill directly onto Maxine's designer handbag, locking eyes with her. "Since you're parading around as his legal family, do me a favor and settle last night's VIP ICU charges.

It's not much. Just fifty grand.

Are you swiping a card, or writing a check?" Watching their faces turn a sickly shade of white, I leaned in close to Maxine's ear and whispered, "Also, about that penthouse.

The property deed is printed in black and white, and it only has one name on it. Mine." "It is my private property.

If you dare step one foot onto the premises, I will have the LAPD haul you away in handcuffs for criminal trespassing. Care to test me?" Raw jealousy twisted their features.

As his "elders," they clearly hadn't seen a single dime of that kind of luxury.

For a long moment, they just stared blankly at the staggering hospital bill, then glared daggers at me. They were way too greedy to part with their own cash.

Keeping Gideon alive right now was equivalent to burning stacks of hundreddollar bills every hour. A month in that bed would easily incinerate millions.

He was an absolute financial black hole. The surgical team mentioned some cuttingedge European medical tech, and I had already signed the blank checks to import it.

If these two parasites were choking over fifty grand, knowing I was dropping millions would probably send them straight into cardiac arrest. "Don't you live with him?" Maxine snapped, suddenly finding her voice. "Don't you know his PIN?

Just use his own money to pay for it!" I rolled my eyes. "Sorry. I don't have his PINs." Total lie. I knew the passcodes to burner email accounts he hadn't touched in a decade.

Seeing them gear up to throw a trashy public tantrum, I beat them to the punch. "Let me guess. You don't actually want to save Gideon at all, do you?

You're just waiting for him to drop dead so you can inherit his trust fund." We were standing right in the middle of the VIP corridor.

I deliberately raised my voice, instantly catching the attention of the surrounding nurses, doctors, and wealthy patients. Everyone loves a good scandal.

Several heads immediately poked out of their doorways. "Sloane, what kind of garbage are you spewing!" Milton panicked, his face turning a dangerous shade of purple.

I didn't back down an inch. I pitched my voice even louder. "Then why the hell are you trying to kick me out?

You're not even willing to swipe a card for his life support!" "You just want me out of the picture so you can pull the plug and snatch your nephew's empire!

Aren't you afraid of going straight to hell for this?

He's still so young, and you're actively praying for him to die!" The massive commotion during Gideon's emergency surgery yesterday had already alerted the entire floor that a billionaire was in critical condition.

Hearing this primetime soap opera play out live, the onlookers practically grabbed popcorn. Hospitals are breeding grounds for gossip. The whispering started instantly.

People with dirty motives terrify easily when exposed.

Realizing the crowd was turning on them, Milton and Maxine forcefully threw the medical bill onto the pristine tile floor. "We'll see how long you can keep acting tough!" Milton spat.

They practically fled down the corridor.

Chapter 3 I stepped right over the crumpled bill in my stilettos, not even bothering to look back as I fired off the order to Simon. "Call a toptier security firm right now.

Get four armed bodyguards stationed outside his door 24/7.

Unless I say so, if any of those people so much as breathe in this hallway, pin them straight to the floor." While Gideon lay comatose in the hospital, the outside world was descending into chaos.

First, the news of the car crash exploded across every major social media trending list. Then came the boardroom brawls, with shareholders tearing at each other's throats.

The most entertaining part? Milton's son, Preston, had miraculously jumped from a lowlevel cubicle rat straight into senior management. All within mere days of Gideon's crash.

Some people were clearly getting desperate. Legally speaking, in terms of blood relations, his uncle was indeed his closest living relative in line to inherit the estate.

How could that family possibly let go of such easy, unimaginable wealth? Gideon's condition remained grim.

I practically lived in the hospital for the next few days, only letting out a breath when his vitals finally stabilized.

Over the years, countless people had kissed my ass just to get close to Gideon. Now that he was down, it meant my protective umbrella was gone.

All those people putting on fake shows of concern were just fishing for intel.

At first, there was a steady stream of "wellwishers" outside his door, but by today, the hallway had grown dead quiet.

My phone was even blowing up with texts from a few suicidal idiots, telling me that since Gideon was out of the picture, I could come crawl into their beds.

Just to be clear, when Gideon was awake, these exact same men used to practically bow when I walked into a room.

I looked down at the man lying in the hospital bed, tangled in a web of IV tubes. Even pale and haggard, his striking features still commanded attention.

For a man his age, what he had built was nothing short of extraordinary. The doctors gave him slim odds of ever waking up.

He could be lying in that bed for a month, six months, a year, or even decades. Keeping him on life support was going to be a massive financial black hole.

Milton and his crew did try to show up again later. But the armed guards outside the door formed a brick wall, making sure they didn't get within ten feet of Gideon.

They screamed and threatened, yelling that I had no legal right to strip away their visitation rights. I didn't even bother listening to them bark.

The hospital administration wasn't stupid; they knew exactly whose credit card was swiping the medical bills.

Besides, hospital staff usually steered clear of messy family drama anyway. Probably figuring Gideon was a lost cause, they stopped trying to snoop around for the past two days.

Instead, a few board members showed up—the ones who were technically on Gideon's side—to pull Simon aside and discuss the current state of the company.

It didn't take a genius to figure out how much raw cash was sitting on the table, just waiting to be carved up now that the boss was out.

I stood off to the side, listening for a bit, before suddenly speaking up. "How about I drop by the office?" I wasn't joking.

But the moment I stepped onto the executive floor of Gideon's company, the stares I got were just like the ones at the hospital—except now, the outright contempt and disgust were dialed up to eleven. "Simon, why the hell did you bring an irrelevant outsider here?" Someone immediately snapped. "We're holding an emergency board meeting.

This isn't Gideon's private playground. Are you trying to cause a scene?" My eyes locked onto the man who just ran his mouth. Gordon, I think.

Held about a five percent stake in the company. The absolute biggest joke in the room was the seating arrangement.

Milton had planted himself right in the head chair, with his son sitting smugly at his right hand. Two parasites with zero equity sitting there acting like they owned the place.

In just a few short days, the cut and fabric of the suits on their backs had visibly upgraded.

I let my gaze sweep across the entire glasswalled conference room before I finally spoke. "You said this is a board meeting.

So what's the problem with me taking a seat?" Chapter 4 Before anyone else could get a word in, Preston snapped. "Sloane, what exactly gives you the right to crash a board meeting?" His interrogation was downright hilarious.

I stared right back at him. "Preston, what exactly gives you and your father the right to sit at this table?" Sure, Gideon built this empire from the ground up, but it had zero connection to the bankrupt, disgraced family they crawled out from.

From what I heard, Preston had been busy going on blind dates with a few heiresses over the last couple of days.

The reason those oldmoney families were suddenly trying to rope him in and secure a marriage alliance was glaringly obvious.

And now that I had showed up, their immediate kneejerk reaction was that I was here to claw at Gideon's assets. "My dad is Gideon's blood uncle!

He's in a coma right now, so someone has to step up and manage the company for him. What's wrong with us representing his interests?" Legally speaking, it sounded plausible enough.

I let out a low chuckle. "So, as a major shareholder, what's the problem with me attending?" "You? A shareholder?" Now it was their turn to burst out laughing.

Simon stepped up from behind me, sliding a stack of documents across the table for them to pass around. "That is my proof of equity. Take a good look." My tone was dead flat.

I watched the color drain from their faces as the papers made the rounds.

Clearly, none of them had ever considered the possibility that the woman Gideon kept as a pet actually held a massive chunk of his company. And it wasn't a small slice.

Twenty percent. "Sloane?" Preston stared at the name printed on the paper, his voice pitching up in panic. "Wait, the document says Sloane Vance.

What does this 'Sloane Vance' have to do with you?" Most of the people in the room were definitely familiar with the name "Sloane Vance." Sloane Vance was one of the original angel investors of Gideon's company, a mysterious stakeholder who always sent lawyers to attend board meetings on her behalf.

I slammed my driver's license flat onto the conference table. The plastic gleamed under the lights, clearly displaying my photo right next to my full legal name: Sloane Vance.

I shot them a deadpan look. "So what if I drop my last name for a stage persona