Chapter 3: The Falling Dominos of Ruin
"M-Majority shareholder?" Victoria stammered, her voice cracking as her perfect, arrogant world began to splinter into a million pieces. "Julian, there must be some mistake! She... she was working! She's a chef! How could she possibly own—"
"Silence," Julian commanded, a single word that cut through her frantic excuses like a razor blade. "Elena’s culinary degree from Paris is just one of her many qualifications. Her main qualification, however, is that she owns sixty percent of the debt your family’s shipping company currently carries. The very dress you are wearing, Victoria, was bought with money loaned to your father by Elena's board of directors."
Elena stepped forward, her emerald eyes locking onto Victoria. The calm, gentle chef was gone; in her place stood a titan of industry, a woman who wielded more financial power than everyone in that ballroom combined.
"You told me that people like me don't mix with guests, Victoria," Elena said, her voice smooth, level, and utterly devastating. "You were right. I don't mix with guests who bring nothing to the table but malice, arrogance, and unearned superiority. This gala was throwing a lifeline to your family's failing company. But it seems you've used that lifeline to hang yourself."
"Please, Elena... Miss Vance!" Victoria cried out, completely discarding her pride as she dropped her champagne glass, letting it shatter against the marble floor. She reached out, trying to grab Elena’s hand, but Julian’s security team instantly stepped in, forming an impenetrable human wall. "I didn't know! I swear I didn't know! My family... my father... we need this merger! If you pull the funding, we lose everything!"
"Then you should have learned to treat every human being with basic decency, regardless of the clothes they wear," Elena replied coldly. She turned her back on Victoria, looking at Julian. "Julian, please have the security team escort Miss Sterling out of my house. She is ruining the atmosphere, and the main course is about to be served."
May you like
"With pleasure," Julian murmured. He signaled the guards.
Before the eyes of the entire city's elite, Victoria Sterling was gripped by the arms. She screamed, she cried, and she begged, her gold gown dragging awkwardly along the floor as she was unceremoniously hauled out of the glittering ballroom and thrown into the rain outside. The socialites who had cheered her on moments ago now turned their faces away, whispering furiously, eager to distance themselves from the radioactive ruin of the Sterling family.
