Chapter 10 - THE PUBLIC FALL
Inside the boardroom, shouts echoed off the glass walls as board members began demanding immediate resignations.
Marcus Vance slammed his briefcase shut, muttering about contacting federal counsel.
Richard Sterling was already on his phone in the corner, frantically calling his personal defense attorneys.
Adrian stood paralyzed at the center of the room, looking like a man who had just watched his entire universe detonate in slow motion.
Celeste tried to push past Margaret Sloan toward the doors, but two security guards summoned by Julian Hart blocked her exit.
“You can’t do this!” Celeste screamed, her pristine professional composure completely unraveling into hysteria.
“Adrian, tell your wife to stop this! Make her stop!”
Adrian didn’t look at her.
His eyes were fixed entirely on me, wide with a mixture of terror, disbelief, and a pathetic, groveling plea for mercy.
“Elise… please,” Adrian whispered, taking a hesitant step forward. “We can fix this.
We’re a family.
Don’t destroy everything we’ve built together over a mistake—”
“We didn’t build anything, Adrian,” I interrupted, my voice steady and cold as winter ice.
“You built a house of cards on top of my family’s foundation, and you used another woman to celebrate your arrogance inside my hotel.”
I turned my back on him and walked toward the private elevator.
Margaret followed close behind, carrying the heavy leather briefcase.
As the elevator doors slid open, I took one last look back into the boardroom.
Camera shutters were already clicking outside the glass partitions.
Word of the SEC investigation and the emergency board revolt had already leaked to financial journalists patrolling the lobby.
By noon, MorganWell’s stock would plummet to absolute zero.
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By evening, federal marshals would be freezing Adrian’s personal assets.
The man who had thought his wife was harmless, grieving, and stupid had just discovered what happens when an heiress wakes up.
