Chapter 6 - The Night Ethan Lost His Empire
Ethan survived the gunshot.
The bullet passed through his side without hitting a major organ.
The mansion survived too, although half the east wing burned before firefighters controlled the flames.
Victor disappeared again.
But the attack achieved something he had wanted.
Fear.
The Blackwood board called an emergency meeting while Ethan was still in the hospital.
Three directors demanded that he temporarily step aside.
Two banks suspended additional financing.
A major casino partner froze a joint development.
News outlets ran the same headline in different forms:
BLACKWOOD EMPIRE CRUMBLING.
Ethan watched from his hospital bed and said nothing.
That worried me more than anger would have.
I sat beside him.
“You’re staring at the television like you can assassinate it.”
“I’m considering options.”
“Try the remote.”
He looked at me.
I held it out.
“You need rest.”
“I need to get out of here.”
“You were shot fourteen hours ago.”
“I’ve had worse.”
“No, you haven’t.”
“I was stabbed in 2019.”
“That was a very small knife.”
“It was six inches.”
“Men always exaggerate measurements.”
His mouth twitched.
Good.
I wanted him irritated.
I wanted him alive.
Then he looked at my hand.
I was holding his.
Neither of us had noticed when it happened.
I started to pull away.
Ethan tightened his fingers.
“Stay.”
One word.
No command.
No arrogance.
Just stay.
So I did.
The board removed Ethan as acting chairman the next afternoon.
Temporarily, according to them.
Victor had prepared for that too.
His allies nominated someone to oversee Blackwood Holdings during the crisis.
Lucas.
When Daniel told us, Lucas looked horrified.
“I didn’t ask for it.”
“I know,” Ethan said.
That surprised everyone.
Lucas stared at him.
“You believe me?”
“No.”
Ethan shifted painfully against the pillows.
“But if Victor wanted you in control, he wouldn’t have spent two days trying to kill you.”
Fair point.
Lucas refused the board position.
That created chaos.
The directors appointed an outside restructuring executive instead.
For the first time since his father’s death, Ethan no longer controlled the legitimate Blackwood empire.
He took the news quietly.
Too quietly.
After everyone left, I closed the hospital room door.
“Say it.”
“Say what?”
“Whatever is happening in your head.”
“Nothing.”
I laughed.
“You lost a billion-dollar company today and nearly died yesterday. Something is happening.”
His jaw tightened.
“I failed.”
There it was.
I sat down.
“At what?”
“Everything.”
“That’s dramatic.”
“My father warned me about Victor. I never knew. Lucas hated me for years. I never tried to understand why. Vanessa walked back into my life and I believed exactly what I wanted to believe.”
His eyes moved toward me.
“And I destroyed the one good thing I had.”
I stopped breathing.
He continued.
“You were the only person in my life who never lied about wanting something from me.”
“Money.”
“Yes.”
I smiled faintly.
“You always knew.”
“You told me on our first date.”
“You asked a stupid question.”
He almost smiled.
Then his expression became serious.
“I thought that made you safe.”
“What?”
“Your honesty.”
He looked toward the window.
“Everyone else pretended they didn’t care about my money. My name. My power. You said exactly what you wanted.”
“So you married me.”
“At first.”
The room became very quiet.
“At first?” I asked.
Ethan looked at me.
“I stopped caring why you married me somewhere around the second year.”
My heart kicked.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because you never said your reasons changed.”
I laughed once, but there was no humor in it.
“You’re blaming me?”
“No.”
“Good.”
“I’m explaining how stupid I was.”
“That part I accept.”
His thumb moved over my knuckles.
“I loved you, Claire.”
Past tense.
It should not have hurt.
Then he corrected himself.
“I love you.”
I stared at him.
Three years.
I had imagined those words.
Wanted them.
Resented myself for wanting them.
Now he said them while our marriage was ending.
“That’s unfair.”
“I know.”
“You told me after the divorce.”
“I know.”
“After you chose Vanessa.”
“I know.”
“After forty million dollars.”
“That was your idea.”
I glared.
He looked almost amused.
Then I felt tears in my eyes and became furious.
“I hate you.”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Probably not.”
I stood.
Ethan released my hand.
I walked toward the window.
“You don’t get to say you love me and expect everything to disappear.”
“I don’t.”
“You humiliated me.”
“I know.”
“You believed another woman without questioning anything.”
“Yes.”
“You decided I was replaceable.”
His voice broke slightly.
“No.”
I turned.
He looked more vulnerable than I had ever seen him.
“I decided you didn’t love me,” he said. “That was different.”
I stared.
He continued.
“When Vanessa came back, she told me she was pregnant. I thought I finally had the family I wanted. And I thought letting you go would cost you nothing except inconvenience.”
“You thought I cared only about your money.”
“Yes.”
I wiped my eyes angrily.
“Idiot.”
“I know.”
I sat again.
Not because everything was forgiven.
It wasn’t.
But because some truths deserved to be heard even when they arrived too late.
The next morning, I made a decision.
Victor expected Ethan to fight for the company.
So Ethan would stop fighting.
Publicly.
Daniel announced Ethan was withdrawing from all Blackwood management responsibilities while recovering.
He would cooperate with investigations.
He would not challenge the temporary board.
The press interpreted it as surrender.
Victor believed it too.
Three days later, he contacted Lucas.
“I knew Ethan would break eventually.”
Lucas recorded the call.
Victor ordered him to retrieve Richard’s original records.
In exchange, Victor promised him control of half the empire.
Lucas agreed.
The meeting would happen at an abandoned Blackwood shipping warehouse near the river.
Federal agents prepared surveillance.
Marcus prepared something less legal.
Ethan insisted on attending.
The doctors objected.
I objected louder.
He went anyway.
So did I.
We waited in a surveillance van two blocks away while Lucas entered the warehouse carrying the metal box.
The real documents were somewhere else.
The box contained copies.
For fifteen minutes, nothing happened.
Then Victor arrived.
I recognized him on the monitor.
Perfect suit.
Silver hair.
Calm smile.
He looked like the man who had toasted our wedding.
Lucas placed the box on a table.
Victor opened it.
“You’ve caused me a lot of trouble.”
Lucas crossed his arms.
“You tried to kill Mom.”
“She became inconvenient.”
Ethan’s face went cold beside me.
Victor continued.
“You were always too emotional. Your brother inherited Richard’s discipline.”
“You murdered Dad.”
Victor smiled.
“Your father lacked imagination.”
Federal agents now had everything they needed.
But they waited.
They wanted Victor to reveal where the authentication device was.
Lucas asked.
Victor became suspicious.
“Why do you care?”
“Because I’m not trusting you again.”
Victor studied him.
Then reached inside his coat.
Marcus spoke into the radio.
“Move.”
Agents entered.
Gunfire erupted.
The monitor shook.
Victor ran.
Lucas followed.
Ethan stood.
“No.”
I grabbed him.
“Sit down.”
“That’s my brother.”
“There are twenty federal agents inside.”
“Claire.”
“You were shot four days ago.”
He hesitated.
Then an agent shouted through the radio.
“Suspect exiting east side!”
Victor appeared outside the warehouse.
He was headed directly toward our van.
Ethan opened the door.
I swore and followed.
Victor saw us.
For one second, his expression changed.
He raised a gun.
Ethan moved in front of me.
Again.
A shot cracked.
Victor stumbled.
Lucas stood behind him holding a weapon.
Victor collapsed.
Lucas lowered the gun.
Agents surrounded them.
Victor was alive.
Wounded.
Arrested.
And inside his coat, they found the authentication device.
The conspiracy was over.
Or so we thought.
Then Daniel called.
“Claire.”
His voice sounded wrong.
“What happened?”
“The restructuring executive just filed emergency papers.”
“So?”
“So while Ethan was recovering, the board approved a sale.”
Ethan took the phone.
“A sale of what?”
Daniel’s answer silenced everyone.
“Almost everything.”
Victor’s final plan had already been activated.
Even from custody, he had managed to leave Ethan one last disaster.
May you like
The Blackwood empire was being sold piece by piece.
And unless we stopped the transaction before midnight the following day, Ethan would lose what his family had spent three generations building.
