LOGINDinner was silent and uncomfortable.Dad sat at one end of the table, barely touching his food. Vivian sat at the other end, her face tight and angry. She’d deleted her posts this afternoon, but I could tell she was furious about it.Emma kept glancing between all of us like she was watching a bomb about to explode. Sophia was too young to understand the tension, just happily eating her chicken nuggets.Grandma Margaret hadn’t come down for dinner. She’d been locked in her room all day. I’d heard her on the phone earlier, her voice sharp and angry, but I couldn’t make out the words.“Ethan, eat your vegetables,” Vivian said, and her voice was cold.I looked at my plate, at the broccoli I hadn’t touched. “I’m not hungry.”“I don’t care. Eat.”“You’re not my mother. You can’t tell me what to do.”The words came out before I could stop them.Vivian’s fork clattered against her plate. Dad closed his eyes, like he’d been expecting this.“Adrian, are you going to let him speak to me like th
I left before he could respond, ran upstairs to my room, slammed the door.My hands were shaking. My whole body was shaking.I’d never talked to adults like that before. Never yelled at Dad or Vivian. Never called them out so directly.But I was tired of being quiet. Tired of pretending everything was okay when it wasn’t.I pulled out my phone, texted Serena: *I tried to talk to Dad about Vivian’s posts. He didn’t care. He just made excuses for her.*Three dots appeared immediately. Then: *I’m sorry, sweetheart. That must have been hard.**It was. But I told them the truth. About everything. About how I know what really happened.**Are you okay? Are they angry with you?*I thought about Dad’s tired face. Vivian’s cold anger. The way neither of them had actually listened to what I was saying.*I don’t know. I don’t think they know what to do with me anymore.**Do you feel safe? If you don’t, if you need anything, call me immediately.*The fact that she asked that, that she was worried
**ETHAN’S POV**The whole bus ride home from school, I’d been rehearsing what I was going to say to Dad.Kids had been talking all day. Showing me screenshots of Vivian’s posts. Asking if it was true that my mom was trying to steal my dad. Laughing about the memes. Making jokes about my “crazy stepmom.”It was humiliating.But more than that, it was wrong. All wrong.I know the truth now. Vivian was the one who’d broken up my parents’ marriage. She was the one who’d lied. And now she was online making my real mom look like the villain when everyone with half a brain could see Vivian was the problem.I had to tell Dad. He had to know what she was doing.Mrs. Juan dropped me off at home, and I went straight to Dad’s office. The door was closed, but I could hear him on the phone, his voice tired and stressed.I waited until he hung up, then knocked.“Come in.”He sat at his desk, looking exhausted. Papers everywhere. His tie loose. He looked like he’d aged ten years in the past week.“He
**Serena POV**I woke up to my phone exploding with notifications.Fifty-three missed calls. Hundreds of texts. My social media mentions were going insane.I sat up in bed, squinting at the screen, trying to make sense of it. Clara’s name appeared at the top of my messages.*Have you seen it? Call me immediately.**Serena, pick up your phone.**Don’t respond to anything until we talk. Vivian’s lost her mind.*I called her back. She answered on the first ring.“Thank God. Have you looked at social media yet?”“No, I just woke up. What’s going on?”“Vivian posted a rant last night. Well, early this morning. Around three a.m.” Clara’s voice was tight. “She’s accusing you of seducing Adrian. Trying to destroy her family. She’s calling you a homewrecker.”I laughed. Actually laughed. “She’s calling me a homewrecker? The woman who was sleeping with my husband while I was pregnant?”“Yeah, the irony isn’t lost on anyone. That’s why this is blowing up. People are dragging her in the comments.
**ADRIAN’S POV**The whiskey burned going down, but not enough.I poured another glass, my third in the past hour, and stared at my laptop screen. The headline mocked me from every financial news site:“ETHEREAL Enters Real Estate Market with $200M Development - Direct Challenge to Moore Enterprises”My phone kept buzzing. Michael from accounting. Patricia from operations. Board members demanding emergency meetings. Investors asking pointed questions about our strategy.I ignored all of it.Instead, I refreshed the page, watched the stock ticker. Moore Enterprises down another six percent since Serena’s announcement three hours ago.She was destroying me. Systematically. Deliberately. And there was nothing I could do to stop it.I drained my glass, poured another.The office door opened. Vivian stood there, arms crossed, looking at me with barely concealed disgust.“Are you seriously drinking? Right now? When your company is falling apart?”“Our company,” I corrected, words slurring s
**Serena POV**The boardroom was packed.Every seat filled with investors, board members, and key executives. All of them were waiting for me to make the announcement that would change everything.I stood at the head of the table, my presentation ready, my confidence absolute.“Thank you all for coming,” I began. “I know you’ve been hearing rumors about ETHEREAL’s next move. Today, I’m here to make it official.”I clicked to the first slide. A rendering of a sleek building, all glass and steel and modern elegance.“ETHEREAL is expanding into real estate development. Luxury residential properties that integrate our design aesthetic from the ground up. Not just decorated apartments. But fully designed living spaces where every element, from the door handles to the light fixtures, reflects our brand’s vision.”Murmurs rippled through the room. Some excited. Some skeptical.“This isn’t a side project or a small venture,” I continued. “We’re committing two hundred million dollars to our fi







