Chapter 4 - Cracks in the Empire
Silence descended upon the hotel suite, heavy and suffocating.
Margaret looked at Ethan, her eyes wide with desperation. "Ethan... you can't let her do this to us. I am your mother! Everything I did was for the family name!"
"No, Mother," Ethan said, his voice laced with venom. "Everything you did was for your control. You hated Clara because she didn't bow to you. You hated her because she fought for her life while you spent your days living off money you never earned."
"She tricked you!" Olivia shouted, throwing her drink onto the carpet. "She used her illness to make you pity her!"
I stood up, resting my hands on the table, leaning forward until I was inches from Olivia’s pale face.
"My cancer didn't make me weak, Olivia," I said smoothly. "It made me realize that life is too short to let venomous parasites like you breathe the same air as the people I love. You thought pulling off my wig would embarrass me? You gave me the best gift you could have ever given me."
"What gift?" Olivia sneered through her tears.
"You showed the entire world who you really are," I whispered. "And you did it on live television."
I turned to Arthur. "Issue a press release from my office. Blackwood Medical Group will hold an open press conference at 10:00 AM tomorrow. We will address the wedding incident, announce the restructuring of the board, and launch a $100 million endowment for pediatric cancer research funded entirely by the liquidated assets of the former board members' private perks."
Margaret gasped, clutching her chest. "My country house... my pension..."
"Gone," Ethan added coldly. "Consider it your contribution to the charity case you were so concerned about."
As we walked out of the suite, leaving Margaret sobbing frantically into her hands and Olivia hyperventilating against the window, Ethan took my hand.
We walked through the grand hotel lobby, where reporters were already gathered outside the glass doors, their camera flashes strobing against the night sky.
"Are you ready for tomorrow?" Ethan asked gently, pulling me close.
May you like
I looked at my reflection in the dark glass of the lobby window—strong, sharp, and hairless, standing next to the man who had stood by me when the world laughed.
"I’ve fought stage three carcinoma, Ethan," I said with a slight smile. "A room full of corporate suits and two ruined socialites won't even make me sweat."
