CHAPTER 2: THE FALL OF A KING
No one spoke.
The only sound inside the dining room was the constant vibration of expensive phones.
Lucas grabbed his first.
Then his second.
His face turned white.
"What... what is this?"
His father snatched up his own phone.
His whiskey glass slipped from his fingers and shattered across the marble floor.
"The board..."
His voice cracked.
"They're calling an emergency vote."
Lucas looked at me for the first time with something I had never seen before.
Fear.
"What did you do?"
I slipped my phone back into my purse.
"I stopped protecting you."
His mother laughed nervously.
"This is ridiculous. Lucas owns sixty percent of the company."
I finally looked at her.
"No."
Silence.
"He owns twenty-two percent."
Her smile disappeared.
"My family acquired the remaining controlling shares four years ago."
Lucas shook his head.
"That's impossible."
"Is it?"
I reached into my handbag and placed a thick blue folder onto the dining table.
Every page carried official corporate seals.
Share transfer agreements.
Board resolutions.
Investment records.
My father had never wanted to interfere with my marriage.
When Lucas asked for funding to expand his business years ago, my family quietly invested through several holding companies.
We never asked for recognition.
We only asked him to build something worthy.
Instead...
He built an empire on arrogance.
He cheated.
He lied.
And he believed money made him untouchable.
His phone rang again.
This time he answered.
"No... don't suspend trading!"
His expression collapsed.
"They can't remove me!"
A calm voice echoed through the speaker.
"The board has already voted."
Lucas slowly lowered the phone.
"They fired me..."
His knees nearly gave out.
Sophie clutched his arm.
"Lucas?"
But he barely heard her.
Everything he had spent a lifetime building had vanished in less than five minutes.
I quietly picked up my wedding ring.
Not to wear it again.
To place it inside my purse forever.
"I'll let my lawyer finish the divorce."
Then I walked toward the door.
No security guard moved.
This time...
They stepped aside for me.
Because everyone in the room finally understood who truly held the power.