She took a slow step closer to him. The smell of her perfume—white rose and sandalwood—hit him. It was the same scent she always wore, but now it smelled like vengeance.
«I gave you seven years of loyalty,» she continued. «I cooked your meals. I ironed your shirts. I supported you when you were a junior analyst making nothing. And the moment you got a taste of success, you threw me away like garbage because you thought I didn’t fit your new life.»
She looked him up and down, her eyes landing on his expensive tie. «You wanted a woman with connections, a woman who commands a room, a woman with a title.» She spread her arms slightly. «Well, here I am.»
The crowd began to murmur. Phones were out. Everyone was recording. This was going to be viral in minutes.
«Emily, wait,» Liam stammered. His brain was spinning, trying to find an angle, a lie, a way out. He put on his best sales smile, the one he used to charm clients. It looked grotesque now.
«Baby, listen, this is… this is a misunderstanding. I was stressed. The divorce… I didn’t mean it. I was just testing you to see if you’d fight for us.»
Jessica’s jaw dropped. «Liam, what the hell?»
Liam ignored her. He took a step toward Emily, reaching for her hand. «I love you, Em. You know that. We can fix this. We’re a power couple now. Imagine what we can do. King and Queen of New York.»
Emily didn’t move away. She let him reach for her hand. But just before he touched her, Arthur intercepted, gripping Liam’s wrist with a grip that was surprisingly painful.
«Do not touch her, Highness,» Arthur growled.
Emily looked at Liam with pure disgust. «You aren’t a king, Liam. You’re a climbing vine. You wrap yourself around people and suck them dry until you’re tall enough to find the next branch. But you forgot one thing about vines.»
«What?» Liam whispered, sweating profusely.
«They die when you cut the roots.» Emily turned to Robert Sterling. «Mr. Sterling, as the new Chairwoman, I have my first order of business.»
«Anything, Your Highness,» Robert said, shaking.
«This man,» she pointed to Liam, «represented himself as a man of integrity. Clearly, that was a lie. He is a liability to this company. He lacks judgment, he lacks morals, and he lacks the class required to represent Vanguard.»
«I agree completely,» Robert said immediately. He turned to Liam. «Liam, you’re fired. Effective immediately. Hand over your badge and phone.»
«You can’t do that!» Liam screamed. «I’m the VP. I brought in the Vance account.»
«Actually,» Jessica interrupted. She stepped away from Liam, looking at the sinking ship. «My daddy doesn’t do business with unemployed losers. Consider the account pulled.»
Liam looked at Jessica. «Betrayed? Jess?»
«Don’t ‘Jess’ me,» she scoffed. «You lied to me too. You said she was a nobody.»
«I’m not getting dragged into this mess.» She turned to Emily. «Your Highness, I had no idea. He told me you were…»
«I know what he told you,» Emily said coolly. «But you were happy to mock a woman you thought was poor. You broke my pottery. You laughed at my life. You are just as small as he is, Jessica. You just have better shoes.»
Emily snapped her fingers. Two large security guards stepped forward.
«Escort Mr. Sterling out,» Emily commanded. «And ensure he doesn’t take the company car. He can take the subway. I hear it’s good for building character.»
«Emily, please!» Liam shouted as the guards grabbed his arms. He was being dragged backward, his heels skidding on the marble floor. «Emily, I’m sorry. I love you. We can work this out!»
Emily didn’t look back. She turned to the stunned crowd of New York’s elite. She raised her champagne glass.
«I apologize for the disturbance,» she said with a gracious smile. «Now please, enjoy the evening. The drinks are on me.»
The room erupted in applause. As Liam was thrown out the front doors of the museum into the rainy New York night, he looked up at the warm, golden glow of the windows. He realized then that he had held a winning lottery ticket in his pocket for seven years, and he had thrown it in the trash for a shiny penny.
He checked his pocket for his phone to call an Uber. It wasn’t there. Robert had taken it. He stood in the rain in his $5,000 tuxedo and began to walk toward the subway.
But the story wasn’t over. Emily had won the battle, but Liam wasn’t the type to stay down. And Jessica Vance wasn’t used to being humiliated. As Emily celebrated inside, a different kind of plot was hatching in the darkness of a limousine parked just down the street.
Liam walked three blocks in the pouring rain before his soaked tuxedo shoes gave him blisters. He was shivering, furious, and his mind was racing like a trapped rat. He had gone from the peak of Everest to the bottom of the Marianas Trench in less than an hour.
He hated Emily. He hated her for lying to him, for embarrassing him, for having the audacity to be more powerful than he was. But more than anything, he needed a way back in. He needed leverage.
A long silver Bentley pulled up alongside him, splashing puddle water onto his already ruined trousers. The back window rolled down an inch.
«Get in,» a gravelly voice commanded.
Liam didn’t hesitate. He opened the door and slid onto the cream leather seats. The car was warm and smelled of expensive cigars and old leather.
Sitting across from him was Marcus Vance. Jessica’s father was a terrifying man. He was seventy years old, built like a linebacker, with eyes that looked like pieces of flint. He had made his fortune in Texas oil by crushing his competition, and he ran his family the same way.
Jessica was sitting next to him, looking sullen and refusing to make eye contact with Liam.
«Mr. Vance,» Liam shivered, trying to regain some composure. «Thank you. Look, what happened back there was…»
«A disaster,» Vance cut him off. His voice was low, a rumble of thunder before a strike. «You humiliated my daughter. You brought my name into a public circus. I should throw you out of this moving car.»
«It was Emily,» Liam protested, his voice rising in desperation. «She set me up. She lied for seven years, Marcus. She’s a fraud.»
«She’s a Princess,» Vance corrected him coldly. «And now, she owns the company that manages twenty percent of my portfolio. You are an unemployed nobody who couldn’t spot a diamond when it was sleeping in his own bed.»
«I can fix this.» Liam leaned forward, his eyes manic. «I know her. I know her weaknesses. She’s soft, Marcus. She plays the tough role now, but inside she’s still the mouse who used to clip coupons. We can break her.»
Vance stared at him for a long, uncomfortable moment. He despised weakness, and Liam was dripping with it right now. But Vance also despised losing money. And Emily’s sudden takeover had spooked the markets. He didn’t like wild cards controlling his assets.
«Jessica says you filed for divorce,» Vance said.
«Yes. Last week.»
«On what grounds?»
«Irreconcilable differences. The usual.» Liam waved his hand dismissively.
Vance leaned back, tenting his thick fingers. A cruel smile slowly spread across his face.
«You idiot. You filed for divorce against a woman you thought had nothing. So you probably offered her a pittance just to make her go away, right?»
Liam nodded slowly, not seeing the trap. «I let her keep the old car. I wanted a clean break.»
Vance laughed. It was a dry, dusty sound. «You filed a legal document stating she had no assets to divide. But she did. She had billions. Hidden billions.»
Vance turned to the man sitting in the front passenger seat. A silent man in a sharp suit who had been typing on a laptop.
«Jenkins, what’s the New York state law on hiding assets during a marriage?»
Jenkins didn’t turn around. «It’s considered fraud upon the court, Mr. Vance. If proven, the judge can invalidate the entire divorce agreement. In punitive cases, they can award 100% of the hidden assets to the aggrieved spouse.»
Liam’s eyes widened. The realization hit him like a physical blow. «Wait,» Liam breathed. «You mean… I mean…»
Vance sneered. «That if we play this right, you aren’t the poor ex-husband. You’re the victim of an international con artist. If she hid her royal status and her fortune to trick you into a cheap divorce, you could be entitled to half of everything. Half of her trust. Half of Vanguard Global.»
The greed washed over Liam, warming him faster than the car’s heater. Half a billion dollars. Maybe more. He wouldn’t just be back on top; he’d be untouchable.
«We need proof,» Vance said sharply, snapping Liam out of his fantasy. «We need to prove she actively deceived you, not just that you were too stupid to ask. We need emails, texts, documents where she claimed poverty.»
«I have them,» Liam said, his mind racing back through seven years. «The texts where she said we couldn’t afford vacation. The emails about budgeting for groceries. I have all of it on my old laptop in the apartment.»
Vance looked at Jessica. «You still have the keys to his place?»
Jessica pulled a set of keys from her designer purse, dangling them disdainfully. «Yeah, I was going to have the locks changed tomorrow.»
«Good,» Vance said. «Jenkins, call the legal team. Wake them up. I want a subpoena ready by 9 AM Monday. We’re suing Her Royal Highness for marital fraud. We’re going to freeze her assets before she can even sit in the chairman’s chair.»
He turned back to Liam. «You’re my dog in this fight, Sterling. I’m backing you. But don’t mistake this for kindness. If you screw this up, I won’t just fire you. I will bury you so deep in lawsuits, you’ll need a shovel to find hell.»
Liam nodded eagerly. He felt a surge of dark power. Emily thought she had won. She had just awakened the real beasts of the concrete jungle. He wasn’t just fighting for his job anymore. He was fighting for half a kingdom.
The conference room at Vance, Reed, and Cromwell was on the 50th floor, wrapped in glass, offering a panoramic view of the city Emily now practically owned.
It was Tuesday morning. The air in the room was frigid, heavily scented with expensive coffee and aggressive legal cologne.
On one side of the 20-foot mahogany table sat Liam, flanked by Marcus Vance and four of the most expensive litigators in the country. Liam wore a new suit Vance had bought him. He looked smug, revitalized by the promise of imminent victory.
On the other side sat Emily. She was alone, save for Arthur, who sat quietly beside her with a slim leather portfolio on the table. She wore a simple cream-colored business suit, no jewelry except the silver locket. She looked calm, almost bored.