Chapter 5 - The Glass Walls Break
Within minutes,
the massive ballroom was empty,
save for the few people standing at the top of the stairs.
The silence was even more suffocating than the music had been.
Arthur was sitting in a velvet chair,
his head in his hands.
Elena was sobbing,
her makeup running down her face.
And Dominic was standing in the middle of the floor,
looking at the empire he had lost in a single hour.
"Why,
Vivienne?"
he asked,
his voice hollow.
"Why did you keep it a secret?"
"If I had known..."
"If you had known,
you would have stayed for the money,"
I said,
stepping toward him.
"I wanted a man who loved me,
Dominic."
"I wanted someone who saw Vivienne,
not the Sterling bank account."
"My brothers warned me,"
"they told me you were ambitious,
that you were hungry."
"But I thought I saw a heart."
"I was wrong."
"I spent seven years building a life with a shadow."
Victor stepped up beside me,
handing me a thick stack of documents.
"These are the divorce papers,
Viv,"
he said.
"And the asset transfer forms."
"Dominic has already been removed as CEO."
"The locks on your house have been changed."
"And the accounts he’s been using have been frozen."
Dominic looked at the papers like they were a death sentence.
"Everything?"
he whispered.
"Everything,"
I replied.
"You leave with exactly what you brought into this marriage,
Dominic."
"Which was a suitcase of old clothes and a dream."
"But since you used Sterling funds to buy the clothes,
you might want to leave those behind too."
Arthur looked up,
his eyes red.
"What about my investment?"
he asked.
"I put millions into this merger!"
"Your investment was used to pay off the debts Dominic accrued behind your back,"
Alexander said,
checking his phone.
"Actually,
Arthur,
you’re technically in debt to us now."
"Our lawyers will be in touch tomorrow morning."
Elena looked at Dominic,
her face twisted with a new kind of rage.
"You lied to me!"
she screamed,
lunging at him.
"You told me you were a self-made man!"
"You told me you were a billionaire!"
Dominic pushed her away,
his face a mask of misery.
"I almost was!"
he shouted back.
"I almost had it all!"
I looked at the two of them,
fighting over the remains of a lie.
I felt no anger anymore,
only a deep,
profound sense of relief.
The glass walls had finally broken,
and I could finally see the truth.
I turned to my brothers.
May you like
"I’m ready to go,"
I said.
