Chapter 4 - The House of Cards
The collapse was total.
The federal agents didn't stop with the company. They took Michael’s phone, his laptop, and the pink diamond ring—which turned out to be a synthetic lab-grown stone, purchased at a fraction of its advertised value. Chloe had been duped by Michael, who had been duped by his own greed.
They were arrested in front of the board, the press, and the shareholders.
Watching Michael Carter being handcuffed—the man who had told me to be 'gracious' while he destroyed everything I cared about—felt like watching a play where the villain finally realizes the floor has been cut out from under him.
He didn't look at me with anger. He looked at me with confusion, as if he still couldn't understand how the 'fragile' woman had dismantled his kingdom.
"Why?" he hissed as the agents dragged him past me. "We could have had it all, Liv. You could have been the wife of a titan."
"I was the titan, Michael," I said, watching them lead him toward the elevator. "You were just the man who forgot who built the ground you stood on."
Chloe didn't say a word. She just kept her head down, her red silk gown torn where the agents had grabbed her. She had wanted to be the queen of his world. She didn't realize that his world was built on sand.
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I didn't stay to watch the door close. I left the ballroom, stepped out into the night air, and took a deep breath. The city lights of Los Angeles looked different now—cleaner, sharper.
The lawsuit to reclaim my inheritance and my intellectual property was already filed. The board had already voted to strip Michael of his title. The future was mine, even if I was walking into it alone.
