PART 2: THE RECKONING , The silence in the grand ballroom was loud.
The silence in the grand ballroom was loud.
It suffocated.
Chloe took a step back.
The train of her white gown rustled against the marble.
The same marble Genevieve had just cleaned.
“No,” Chloe muttered.
Her voice was high,
desperate.
“This is a joke.
A prank.
Ethan, tell me this is a hidden camera show.”
Ethan didn’t look at her.
He remained on his knees.
He looked like a man waiting for the guillotine.
“Mother,” Ethan said,
his voice dead.
“Chloe.
Do you know who this is?
This is Genevieve Consecour.
She doesn’t just own this house.She owns our lives.
She signed the five-million-dollar injection voucher yesterday.”
Victoria’s hands began to shake.
Her perfect,
aristocratic posture collapsed.
The “Old Money” facade she wore so proudly was cracking.
“Five million…” she whispered.
“Ten million, actually,” Genevieve corrected.
She walked over to the grand fireplace.
She picked up a silver bell from the mantelpiece.
She rang it once.
The heavy double doors of the ballroom swung open immediately.
Two men in black suits walked in.
They weren’t security guards.
They carried leather briefcases.
Behind them walked a man in his fifties,
sharp,
wearing a Savile Row suit.
Harrison,
Genevieve’s chief legal counsel.
“Chairwoman,” Harrison said,
bowing his head.
“The documents are ready.”
“Good,” Genevieve said.
She didn’t look at Victoria.
She didn’t look at Chloe.
She looked out the high windows,
toward the manicured lawns.
“Process the immediate default on the Vance Group.
Call the loans.
All of them.
Effective as of five minutes ago.”
“Wait!” Victoria lunged forward.
She forgot her dignity.
She grabbed the edge of Genevieve’s grey apron.
“Madam Consecour!
Please!
We didn’t know!
If we had known it was you, we would never—”
“That’s the problem, Victoria,” Genevieve cut her off.
She didn’t pull away.
She just looked down at Victoria’s hand on her apron until Victoria let go in shame.
“You only respect the uniform,
not the human.
You think money gives you the right to be a beast.
I have more money than you could count in three lifetimes.
Do you see me barking?”
Chloe’s panic turned into ugly anger.
She couldn’t lose this.
She had spent two years trapping Ethan.
She had dumped her high school sweetheart.
She had lied about her family background.
She was supposed to be Mrs. Vance today.
She was supposed to be on the cover of Vogue.
“You can’t do this!” Chloe screamed.
She pointed a manicured finger at Genevieve.
“The contracts are signed!
The wedding venue is paid for!
You’re just a bitter old woman playing games!
Ethan loves me!
We are getting married today,
with or without your money!”
Ethan stood up.
He turned around.
His face was a mask of pure rage.
Slap.
The sound echoed through the high ceilings.
Chloe’s face snapped to the side.
Her veil tore.
She stumbled back into the mirror.
“Shut your gold-digging mouth!” Ethan yelled.
His chest heaved.
“Love you?
I married you because my mother said your family had connections in New York!
I married you to save this company!
And you just ruined it in sixty seconds!”
Chloe touched her cheek.
Blood trickled from her lip.
She looked at Ethan like she didn’t recognize him.
“Ethan… you hit me?”
“Get out,” Ethan said, his voice cold.
“Get out of this house.
Get out of my sight.”
“She can’t leave yet,” Harrison,
the lawyer,
stepped forward.
He pulled a thick document from his briefcase.
He handed it to Chloe.
“Miss Chloe Jenkins.
Or should I say, Miss Chloe Miller from Ohio?”
Chloe’s eyes went wide.
Her breath hitched.
“We ran a background check the moment you stepped into this estate,” Harrison said,
his voice monotone,
brutal.
“You lied about your father’s real estate business.
He is currently serving twelve years for wire fraud.
You also took a two-hundred-thousand-dollar cash advance
from the Vance corporate account last week under false pretenses.
That is grand larceny.”
“No… no, that was a gift from Ethan!” Chloe cried,
looking at Victoria.
“Mother, help me!”
Victoria turned her back.
She didn’t want to look at a fraud.
She was too busy trying to figure out how to save her own skin.
“Ethan Vance,” Genevieve called out.
Ethan turned, his spine straight.
“Yes, Chairwoman.”
“You are a capable CEO,” Genevieve said.
She walked to the center of the room.
“But you lack a backbone.
You let your mother dictate your business,
and you let a street-level hustler fool your heart.
The Vance Group stays alive under one condition.”
Ethan fell to his knees again.
“Anything.
Name it.”
“Your mother leaves the country.
She goes to the countryside estate in Montana.
No budget.
No credit cards.
Just a small allowance.
And you?
You work from the bottom.
You start as a floor manager in our logistics department.
Minimum wage.”
Victoria gasped.
“Montana?
That’s a desert!
May you like
I am Victoria Vance!”
“Not anymore,” Genevieve said.
She took the cloth she used to clean the floor
and tossed it onto Victoria’s face.
“Clean your own mess.”
