Chapter 4 - The Tables Turn
The silence in the ballroom became absolute. You could hear the faint hum of the air conditioning vents high above the chandeliers.
Marcus and Celeste stood frozen on the stage, their faces completely drained of color. The smug, triumphant expressions they had worn moments ago were replaced by the creeping dread of an impending avalanche.
"Mr. Cole, I must insist," Marcus babbled frantically, taking a desperate step forward. "That woman—she was creating a disturbance, she had no right to be here, we were just handling—"
Harrison Cole turned his head slowly, fixing Marcus with a glare so cold and severe it could have frozen liquid nitrogen.
"You just threw out the new majority owner and CEO of Vantage Meridian," Harrison announced, his resonant, authoritative voice carrying effortlessly to every corner of the room.
A collective gasp swept through the three hundred guests. Whispers exploded instantly into loud, frantic chatter.
Celeste clutched the stem of her champagne flute so tightly her knuckles turned white. The glass shattered in her hand, spilling expensive champagne across the front of her shimmering gold gown, but she didn't even flinch. Her eyes were locked on Rebecca with wide, unadulterated terror.
"Majority owner?" Marcus choked out, his voice pitching upward in hysterical disbelief. "That’s impossible! Vantage Meridian is a publicly traded multi-billion-dollar entity! She’s just a—she’s my wife!"
May you like
"Your ex-wife, Mr. Vance," Harrison corrected him coldly, pulling a crisp, legal document from his interior jacket pocket and holding it up for the room to see. "As of 5:00 PM this afternoon, Mrs. Rebecca Vance acquired the controlling block of voting shares through a strategic corporate restructuring. She owns the holding company that underwrites your entire firm's debt."
Marcus’s knees buckled. He grabbed onto the edge of the podium to keep from collapsing onto the stage floor.
