“Fix what, you broke loser?” Chloe snapped, not even bothering to look back. “My father is not funding your bankruptcy. Have fun in court!”
She pushed through the heavy oak doors, her father right behind her, leaving Marcus staring after his ‘real’ bride in complete devastation.
Evelyn was hyperventilating. She grabbed the edge of a floral arrangement to steady herself, crushing white roses under her fingers. Her eyes were fixed on me, wide with a mixture of terror and frantic, calculating desperation.
I looked at the woman who had made my life hell. For two years, I had smiled through her passive-aggressive insults. I had politely endured her comments about my cheap clothes, my lack of pedigree, my “unrefined” manners. I had let her force me to use the service elevator at her penthouse because I was carrying groceries. I had endured it all because I loved her son, and I wanted to prove that my character was worth more than her money.
Now, she knew I had more money than her entire bloodline had ever possessed.
“Maya,” Evelyn gasped, forcing her face into a grotesquely twisted, desperate smile. She took a step toward me, reaching out with shaking hands. “Maya, darling. There’s been a terrible misunderstanding.”
I didn’t move. I just watched her scramble.
“This was a test!” Evelyn cried, her voice cracking as she desperately tried to weave a lifeline out of thin air. She looked around at the silent, watching crowd, then back at me. “Yes! A test! We wanted to see if you… if you truly loved Marcus, even in the face of adversity! We never intended to go through with Chloe! She was just… an actor! To see if your love was strong enough!”
It was so pathetic it was almost funny.
Arthur stepped up beside me, his presence a heavy, undeniable weight. He didn’t raise his voice, but the entire room hung on his every syllable.
“My daughter,” Arthur said coldly, “is many things. But she is not a fool, Mrs. Sinclair. You pushed her to the floor. You humiliated her in front of your peers. And you did it not knowing that she was the only reason my company was offering you a buyout in the first place.”
Marcus whipped his head around, his eyes locking onto mine.
“What?” Marcus whispered. “What does he mean?”
“The Vanguard deal wasn’t a business acquisition, Marcus,” I said, letting the final truth drop like an anvil. “It was a wedding present.”
Chapter 3: The Billion-Dollar Ruin
The words hit Marcus physically. His knees actually buckled, and he had to grab the wooden railing of the choir loft to keep from collapsing onto the marble.
“A wedding present,” Marcus repeated, his voice hollow, stripped of every ounce of the arrogance he had worn just five minutes earlier.
“Your company is worthless, Marcus,” Arthur stated with brutal corporate precision. “Sinclair Logistics hasn’t turned a profit in four years. Your board is fractured, your assets are leveraged to the hilt, and your debt is staggering. No sane firm would have touched you. I ordered the acquisition solely because Maya asked me to.”
I looked at Marcus, letting him see exactly what he had thrown away.