Chapter 6 - The Golden Cage Crumbles
“No… No, this is impossible!” Graham screamed, lunging forward to grab the documents, but his hands shook so badly he could barely turn the pages. “You can’t do this! Hart Industries is a family legacy! I built this company!”
“You built it on debt, embezzlement, and stepping on everyone around you—especially Clara,” Julian corrected coldly. “And as of five minutes ago, Vance Group owns seventy-one percent of your voting shares. You are no longer the CEO, Graham. You are an employee at my mercy.”
The realization hit Graham like a physical blow. His knees buckled, and he collapsed heavily into his chair, staring blankly at the table as his entire empire dissolved into dust in a matter of seconds.
Across the table, the atmosphere was equally catastrophic.
Chad Sterling, Sophie’s brand-new husband—a man whose family cared exclusively about status, wealth, and advantageous alliances—slowly stood up from his chair. He looked at Sophie as if she were carrying a plague.
“Chad?” Sophie whimpered, reaching out a trembling, bejeweled hand toward him. “Chad, baby, what’s wrong? Don’t look at me like that.”
“Don’t touch me,” Chad spat, flinching away from her. “My father gave twenty million dollars to your family’s holding company as a wedding dowry investment on the condition that Graham was a stable, billion-dollar asset. If Hart Industries is bankrupt and your father is a ruined pauper, our family looks like fools for marrying into this circus.”
“It’s not my fault!” Sophie shrieked, jumping to her feet and abandoning all pretense of bridal grace. Her face twisted into an ugly, venomous sneer as she pointed a shaking finger directly at me. “This is all her fault! Clara planned this! She’s always been jealous of me! She ruined my wedding! She stole my life!”
“Stole your life?” I asked, stepping closer to my sister with a calm, chilling composure. “Sophie, I spent my entire life handing you my achievements, covering for your mistakes, and letting you shine while you stepped on my neck. I didn't steal anything from you. I simply stopped pretending you were worth the sacrifice.”
“You bitch!” Sophie screamed, lunging across the table like a wild animal, her fingernails clawing toward my face.
Before she could take two steps, Julian stepped in front of me with the speed of a striking viper, catching Sophie’s wrist in a grip of iron. He didn't squeeze hard enough to break bone, but the sheer force and warning in his obsidian eyes made her freeze instantly.
“Touch my wife again,” Julian whispered, his voice dangerously low, “and I will ensure your divorce isn't just messy, Sophie—I'll make sure neither you nor your precious husband ever works, breathes easy, or sets foot in polite society again.”
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Chad grabbed Sophie’s arm, yanking her backward. “We’re leaving. The marriage is annulled. I’m calling my lawyers from the car.”
With that, Chad turned on his heel and stormed out of the ballroom, leaving Sophie standing alone in her thousand-dollar Vera Wang gown, weeping hysterically as four hundred guests watched her social standing disintegrate in real-time.
