CHAPTER 2: I AM INNOCENT 

Vespera's POV 

Everett’s hand remained locked around my wrist like a steel cuff. His words hovered in the air between us, heavy and toxic.

Tonight will be your last night as a Kane.

"Everett, let go of me," I whispered, my voice trembling as I tried to pull back. "People are watching. What are you doing?"

He didn't answer. He didn't even look at me. Instead, he forced a polite, smooth smile toward a group of hedge fund managers standing nearby and began pulling me through the packed ballroom. My chest heaved with each we took, my heart hammering so hard against my ribs I thought it might crack them.

"Everett, please!" I pleaded under my breath, struggling to keep up with his long, forceful strides. "You're hurting me!"

"Keep walking, Vespera," he muttered through clenched teeth, his grip tightening until my fingers went completely numb. "Smile for the cameras. Show everyone what a dutiful little wife you are."

We reached the base of the grand carpeted stairs leading up to the main stage. The event host, a well-known news anchor in a shimmering gown, stepped back from the podium with a beaming smile.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen," her voice echoed across the massive speaker system, "please welcome the Chief Executive Officer of Kane Enterprises—Everett Kane!"

The entire ballroom erupted into loud, thunderous applause. Hundreds of hands clapped in unison. Dozens of professional photographers rushed toward the front of the stage, their heavy camera lenses aimed right at us.

Everett practically dragged me up the steps beside him. The blinding stage lights hit my eyes, making my head throb.

"Everett, I don't want to be up here," I choked out, my eyes burning with unshed tears. "Let me go down. Please."

"Stay right where you are," he commanded coldly.

He stepped up to the silver microphone, adjusting his collar with one hand while keeping his eyes fixed on the sea of elite New Yorkers below. The applause slowly died down, leaving a heavy, expectant silence in the room.

"Thank you, everyone," Everett began, his voice rich and charming over the speakers. "Thank you for coming tonight to support the Kane Foundation."

I stood two steps behind him, clutching my hands tightly against my emerald dress. My breath came in short, panicked gasps. Every instinct inside my body was screaming at me to run, but my legs felt like they were being chained.

"As many of you know," Everett continued, leaning into the microphone, "Kane Enterprises has always stood for integrity, trust, and absolute excellence." He paused, his tone shifting from warm to strangely dark. "Which is why it breaks my heart to stand before you tonight and address a cancer that has been rotting my company from the inside."

A quiet murmur rippled through the crowd. People began looking at one another in confusion.

I froze. "Everett..." I whispered, taking a cautious half-step toward him. "What are you saying?"

He ignored me, his voice booming through the speakers. "For the past three months, Kane Enterprises has suffered massive financial losses. Over twelve million dollars have vanished from our private offshore accounts."

Gasps echoed through the ballroom. Guests leaned in close, whispering frantically. Camera flashes began to burst in quick, rhythmically blinding pops.

My mind went completely blank. Twelve million dollars? What was he talking about?

"I launched a private internal audit yesterday," Everett said, his voice dripping with dramatic sorrow. He turned his head slowly, pointing a long, sharp finger directly at me. "And today, I found out who stole it. My own wife. Vespera Bennett."

The world around me instantly shattered for a complete minute.

Did he just call my name?

The air rushed out of my lungs in a harsh gasp. The room seemed to tilt sideways. Every single pair of eyes in that grand ballroom locked onto me. Whispers exploded into open shouts.

"No..." I breathed, shaking my head violently as panic seized my throat. "No, that’s—that’s not true! Everett, what are you doing?!"

"Don't play innocent, Vespera!" Everett roared into the microphone, his face twisting into a hideous mask of rage. "You thought you could trick me? You thought I wouldn't notice a penniless orphan leeching millions out of my family’s hard-earned empire?!"

My eyes welled up with tears instantly, "I didn't steal anything!" I cried out, stepping forward, my voice cracking so hard it felt like glass tearing in my throat. "I don't even have access to those accounts! You know I don't! Tell them the truth!"

"Here is your truth!" Everett snarled pure rage evident on his face.

Was this the man I married?

 I saw him reach out into his inner jacket pocket, pulled out a thick stack of printed financial documents, and hurled them directly at my chest.

The heavy papers struck my body and scattered into the air, fluttering down around my feet like white snow. I looked down in utter horror. Printed across the top of every single page was my legal digital signature, authorizing multi-million dollar wire transfers to private shell accounts.

"She used her position as my wife to forge accounting approvals!" Everett shouted into the mic, his voice echoing over the roar of the press. "She dragged my family name through the mud! She is a fraud, a thief, and a disgraced liar!"

“ And now,” he locked eyes with me, false pain evident on his face,“she was requesting we file for a divorce” 

Flash!Flash!! Flash!!!

The blinding light of a hundred cameras washed over my face. Reporters pushed past the security velvet ropes, thrusting microphones and lenses up toward the stage.

"Mrs. Kane! Did you steal the money?"

"Is it true you used your marriage to rob Kane Enterprises?"

"Look over here, Vespera! Give us a smile for the front page!"

"I didn't do it..." Tears trickling down my cheeks,my knees instantly dropped to the stage floor, desperately trying to gather the paper pages with my shaking hands. "I swear I didn't do it! Someone framed me! Everett, please look at me! You know I didn't do this!"

I looked up at my husband, tears streaming down my face, begging him with my eyes to stop this nightmare.

Everett didn't look back with pity. He looked down at me like I was a cockroach he had finally succeeded in stepping on. A small, wicked smirk touched the corner of his lips—a smirk that lasted only a fraction of a second before he put on a face of heartbreak for the cameras.

"I am going to fulfill her wish, I am filing for an immediate annulment and divorce," Everett announced to the crowd, his voice booming over my helpless sobs. "And I will ensure she faces the full force of the law."

The humiliation was a physical pain, burning through my chest, making it impossible to pull air into my lungs. My soul felt crushed, pulverized under the weight of a betrayal so deep I couldn't even process it. I had given this man my trust. I had given him my life. And he was destroying me in front of the entire world.

Everett stepped away from the podium and looked down at me one last time.

"Get this garbage out of my sight," he commanded coldly, malice laced in his voice.

He raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

Two massive, burly security guards in dark suits immediately charged up the stage steps. Before I could even stand up, they grabbed me roughly by both arms, hauling me up from the floor so hard my dress tore at the shoulder.

"Let go of me!" I screamed, thrashing against their iron grip as fresh tears blinded my vision.

 "Let me go! I’m innocent!" 

“I am innocent of this accusation!”

“Everett you can't do this to me, after all that we have been through, you chose to humiliate me in this manner” I screamed. The hurt was unbearable.

How could he do this to me?

"Hold her tight," the head guard ordered grimly.

They pinned my arms behind my back and began dragging me down the stage steps, pushing through the hostile crowd of socialites who stepped back in disgust,some laughed, others taking videos, and pointing their phones at my face.

I was dragged like a criminal through the very room where I had walked in as a billionaire's wife less than an hour ago.

"Everett!" I shrieked one last time, turning my head back through the sea of

flashing lights. "Everett!"

He just stood at the podium, calmly watching me being thrown out into the night.