CHAPTER 2: THE RECKONING

Damien: Pov.

It was only 6 a.m. when my phone started ringing without stopping.

I ignored it at first. The sound kept cutting through the quiet of the apartment until I finally reached for it. Missed calls filled the screen. My secretary. My assistant. Messages stacking on top of each other.

Before I could open any of them, a new notification appeared.

CEO OF BLACKWOOD EMPIRE DIVORCES WIFE AFTER $8 MILLION FRAUD SCANDAL.

The headline sat there like a slap. This only happened yesterday. How was it already everywhere?

My secretary called again. I answered.

“Sir, you need to come to the office immediately,” she said, her voice tight with panic.

“What happened?”

“Investors are pulling out. We’ve already lost three clients. Reporters are outside demanding answers.”

I sat up straight. “I’m on my way.”

When I reached the building, the crowd outside was thick. Cameras flashed the second I stepped out of the car. Security pushed a path through the reporters. One of them shoved a microphone toward my face.

“Mr. Blackwood, is it true your wife stole from the company? Why did you marry a thief?”

I walked past without answering.

Inside, my assistant met me halfway down the hall.

“Sir, the board is already waiting. Three more clients have called to cancel. Investors want an explanation.”

I went straight to the boardroom. The noise died the moment I entered.

Richard spoke first.

“Eight million dollars is missing, Damien. How did this happen?”

“I didn’t know until yesterday.”

“And your wife is responsible?”

“Yes. The evidence points directly to her.”

One of the board members leaned forward. “You’re certain? What if there’s been a mistake?”

“There isn’t. I’ve seen the records myself. The evidence is clear.”

Richard shook his head. “This isn’t only about the money anymore. Investors are pulling out. Clients are losing confidence.”

“I’ll speak to the press myself,” I said.

I stepped in front of the cameras a short while later. Microphones pushed toward me from every direction.

“Mr. Blackwood, did your wife really steal from your company?”

“Eight million dollars is missing, and everything we’ve uncovered points to my wife,” I said. “I trusted her completely. I was wrong.”

“If you knew she was capable of this, why did you marry her?”

“I never knew the woman I married was nothing but a hardened criminal. I trusted her. I loved her. I never imagined I would see this day. The truth is, she was nothing but a gold digger and a thief.”

“Do you regret marrying her?”

“Yes. I should have listened to my mother. She saw through her from the beginning. I didn’t.”

Someone in the crowd shouted the question I had been dreading.

“Mr. Blackwood, isn’t this exactly what happened to your father?”

The room went quieter for a second. I thought of my father. Of the man he trusted. Of everything that trust had cost him.

“Yes,” I said finally. “My father trusted his best friend with everything. His business. His money. Even his family. He never believed that man could betray him until it was too late. I watched my father lose everything because he trusted the wrong person. I never thought I’d stand here years later living through the same thing.”

“What do you regret most?”

“Trusting the wrong person. I thought I knew Ava. I thought I could trust her with my life. I was wrong.”

I turned and walked away while the reporters kept shouting behind me.

Back in my office, I sat down and opened my phone. Ava’s face was everywhere. Headlines calling her a thief. A gold digger. A liar. Comments under every article. I locked the screen, but I couldn’t get her face out of my head.

She deserved everything coming her way.

A knock sounded on the door. Nathaniel walked in carrying two cups of coffee and sat across from me.

“You handled it well,” he said.

“I just want this whole mess to end.”

“You did the right thing, Damien. Don’t let what she did destroy you or the company.”

Before he could say more, the door opened again. Vanessa stepped inside. She looked calm, but something in her eyes stayed distant.

“Can I talk to you?”

“Of course.”

She didn’t sit. She stood there looking at both of us.

“I came to tell you I’m resigning.”

“What? Why?”

“Because I can’t keep coming here every day pretending everything is fine. I loved you, Damien. I gave you five years of my life, and you left me to marry another woman. Every time I look at you, I’m reminded of everything you promised me and never gave me.”

“Vanessa, I’m sorry. I know I hurt you.”

“You never chose me,” she said. “I was always just an option to you. Never your choice.”

She walked to the door without waiting for a response. It closed behind her.

My assistant rushed in almost immediately after.

“Sir, the stock price is dropping. We’ve lost twenty clients.”

I leaned back in my chair and stared at the reports on my desk. Everything was falling apart at once.

Hours later, Nathaniel and I sat in my living room watching the evening news. My press conference played on every channel. Ava’s face sat under every headline.

“Thank God you divorced her,” Nathaniel said. “She almost destroyed everything you built.”

“I just wish none of this had happened.”

Nathaniel smiled as he turned back to the television. For a second, something about that smile felt off. It disappeared before I could figure out what it was.

Across the city, a man sat alone in the darkness of his penthouse watching the same broadcast.

Damien’s face filled the screen, calling Ava a thief and a liar.

“Oh, poor Damien,” he murmured. “You really think she did it.”

He reached for his glass of wine and took a slow sip, eyes fixed on Ava’s picture on the screen.

A faint smile crossed his face.

“You have no idea what’s coming next. This is just the beginning.”