Chapter 5 - She Tried to Buy Her Way OutThe video ended.
The screen turned black.
No one moved.
The silence in the control room was heavier than any shouting could have been.
Victoria suddenly dropped to her knees.
"Ethan... please."
Tears poured down her face as she crawled toward me.
"I made a mistake. I was stressed. I wasn't thinking. I swear I'll change."
I looked down at the woman I had once believed would grow old beside me.
For years, I thought her kindness was real.
Now I realized it had only existed when I was watching.
"You didn't make one mistake," I said calmly.
"You made a choice."
"Every single day."
She reached for my hand.
I stepped back.
"You humiliated the woman who gave me everything."
"You looked into the eyes of a seventy-year-old woman and decided she deserved less respect than a dog."
Victoria shook her head violently.
"No! That's not who I am."
"Then who is the woman in those videos?"
She had no answer.
Instead, she pointed desperately toward the monitor.
"My father can fix this."
The words escaped before she could stop them.
The room fell silent again.
"My father knows people everywhere," she continued in a trembling voice. "We'll delete the recordings. We'll compensate your mother. Whatever she wants... money, a new house, anything."
I laughed.
It wasn't a laugh of amusement.
It was the sound of complete disappointment.
"You still don't understand."
I walked to the monitor and paused the image showing my mother kneeling on the concrete.
"This woman sold her wedding ring so I could buy my first engineering textbooks."
I clicked to another frame.
"She skipped meals for years because she wanted me to have enough to eat."
Another click.
"When I started my company, she secretly borrowed money from neighbors so I could pay my employees during our first difficult month."
I turned back to Victoria.
"And you think she can be bought with money?"
Victoria lowered her head.
For the first time since we'd met, she had nothing left to say.
I took a deep breath.
"Daniel."
"Yes, sir."
"Call every member of the board."
His eyes widened slightly.
"Tonight?"
"Tonight."
I looked directly at Victoria.
"I own seventy-eight percent of Cole Development."
"The remaining shareholders trust my judgment."
She frowned, confused.
"What does that have to do with us?"
"It has everything to do with us."
She had proudly introduced herself for years as Mrs. Ethan Cole.
She hosted charity galas.
Appeared on magazine covers.
Used my company name to build her own social status.
She thought that title made her untouchable.
She was about to discover how quickly it could disappear.
I picked up my phone one last time.
Then I made a single call.
"Richard?"
My attorney answered immediately.
"Yes, Mr. Cole."
"Prepare the divorce papers."
Across the room, Victoria's breathing stopped.
She stared at me in disbelief.
As the reality finally sank in, her face turned as white as marble.
Because she had just realized...
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She wasn't about to lose an argument.
She was about to lose everything.
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