Chapter 4 - The Retaliation
Security was on Vanessa before she could take two steps toward me. Two burly men in tailored dark suits took her firmly by the arms.
"Get your hands off me!" Vanessa shrieked, kicking her heels against the polished marble. "Do you know who my father is? He’s the majority shareholder in Mercer Logistics! Ethan, tell them! Tell them to let me go!"
Ethan didn't move a muscle to help her. He deliberately looked down at his shoes, pretending not to hear her frantic screams as the guards escorted her toward the side exit. In that single, cowardly gesture, I saw the true essence of the man I had loved for five years. He didn't love Vanessa. He didn't love me. He loved power, status, and survival. And right now, Vanessa was toxic waste.
Once the double doors slammed shut behind her, a suffocating tension settled over the ballroom.
"Arthur," Margaret said, waving a hand at the room. "Please escort Clara to the private study upstairs so she can clean that scratch. And call Julian Vance."
At the mention of that name, Ethan visibly jolted. Julian Vance was the managing partner of Vance & Sterling, the most ruthless trust-and-estate litigation firm on the Eastern seaboard. He also happened to control the municipal bonds Ethan’s firm had been begging to underwrite for the last six months.
"Wait, Clara," Ethan rushed after me as Arthur offered me his arm. "Clara, please, let's go home together. We can talk about this. I had no idea about your family. Why didn't you ever tell me? We're partners, aren't we?"
I stopped and looked him directly in the eyes. "We were husband and wife, Ethan. But you stopped seeing me as a partner the day your company hit its first million. You wanted an ornament, and when I wouldn't play the part, you brought Vanessa into our lives."
"That was a mistake! She threw herself at me, you know how ambitious she is!" he pleaded, his voice dropping to a desperate whisper. "Clara, think about what this means for us. With the Ashford name, with your grandmother's trust... my firm could go national. We could be the biggest power couple in this city!"
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I stared at him, feeling nothing but a profound, chilling emptiness. "There is no 'us,' Ethan. There hasn't been for a very long time."
I turned away and followed Arthur up the sweeping grand staircase, leaving my husband standing alone under the harsh glare of the chandelier, surrounded by people who were already beginning to whisper about his ruin.
