CHAPTER 4: THE SIGNATURE

POV: Vivienne Hart

"You cannot just hand me legal documents in front of a hundred reporters and expect me to let you walk away without a single explanation, Vivienne," Roman yelled, slamming the heavy wooden front door of their penthouse shut behind him as he followed her into the dimly lit living room, his tuxedo jacket already unbuttoned and his tie pulled loose.

"I gave you seven years of explanations, Roman, but you never listened to a single one because you were always too busy building your kingdom, so please just sign the paperwork on the kitchen island and leave my house immediately," Vivienne replied, her voice finally losing its icy composure as she turned to face him, the built-up exhaustion and physical pain from the car accident finally catching up to her.

"Your house? This is our home, Vivienne, and I am not signing anything until you calm down and tell me why you are acting completely hysterical over a media announcement that I didn't even approve," Roman demanded, stepping closer to her with his hands raised in frustration, his dark eyes flashing with a familiar stubbornness that used to make her back down.

"I am not hysterical, Roman, but I am completely finished begging you for crumbs of affection while you run to Celeste every single time she calls, because I spent twelve hours alone in a trauma unit after a truck smashed into my vehicle while you were holding her hand at Saint Jude’s," Vivienne snapped, her voice cracking as seven years of silent compliance broke apart right in front of him.

"I told you that Celeste’s condition was critical, and whatever she said on that stage tonight about being pregnant has absolutely nothing to do with me, because we haven't been intimate, and I am not the father of her child," Roman insisted, his tone dead serious as he tried to grab her shoulders to make her look at him, but she pushed his hands away with surprising force.

"Do you honestly expect me to believe that when your own mother called me from the hospital to tell me to step aside gracefully so Celeste could provide the Ashford Group with an heir?" Vivienne asked, a bitter, humorless laugh escaping her lips as she watched his expression falter for a split second.

"My mother said that to you? I didn't know she called you, Vivienne, but that still doesn't change the fact that you are overreacting to external pressure, because you always do this when things get stressful, and then you calm down after a few days and everything goes back to normal," Roman said, crossing his arms over his chest as if he had already won the argument, his absolute confidence in her predictability radiating off him.

"Nothing is ever going back to normal, Roman, because you truly believe that I have nowhere else to go and no identity outside of being your quiet, supportive wife who manages your household while you ignore her existence," Vivienne said, walking over to the marble island where Arthur had left the document folder before he departed.

"Because it’s the truth, Vivienne, and you know as well as I do that a divorce will leave you with nothing but a standard settlement, which won't even cover your current lifestyle once you lose the Ashford name," Roman stated coldly, his arrogance blinding him to the actual reality of the woman standing across from him.

"You really think I survived on your charity all these years, Roman, but the truth is that I am the primary beneficiary of the Vanguard Trust, which means I currently own exactly eighteen percent of the Ashford Group through hidden offshore holdings that my family established before we even married," Vivienne revealed, her voice dropping to a dangerous, steady whisper that caused Roman’s entire body to freeze instantly.

"The Vanguard Trust? That is an international conglomerate that has been aggressively buying up our debt for the last three fiscal quarters, so there is absolutely no way a linguistics graduate from a middle-class background could control those assets," Roman stammered, his face turning pale as he tried to process the information, his mind desperately rewriting everything he thought he knew about his wife.

"My family dynasty has more wealth than your entire corporate empire will ever see, Roman, and I buried my name because I wanted you to love me for who I was, not what I owned, but since you preferred Celeste's lies over my truth, I am going to use every single one of those shares to dismantle your board of directors piece by piece," Vivienne said, pulling a sleek black pen from her purse without a single hint of hesitation left in her posture.

"Vivienne, wait, let's just sit down and talk about this properly because if the board finds out you control that much equity, the stock value will crater by morning," Roman pleaded, his previous arrogance completely evaporating as he lunged forward to stop her, but it was already too late.

With a swift, fluid motion, Vivienne pressed the pen to the parchment and scribbled her signature across the dotted line, before she slid the heavy manila folder across the smooth marble surface until it struck Roman directly in the chest.

"The papers are officially signed on my end, Roman, so you can either sign them now or let my attorneys handle the hostile takeover of your company on Monday morning," Vivienne said, turning her back on him completely as she walked toward the private elevator, leaving her keys on the counter and stepping inside the steel doors without looking back a single time.