Victor
Thomas Chen stands up first.
He's been an investor in Kane Industries for fifteen years. He was at the gala last night. He watched Victor destroy his wife and did nothing. Now he's pulling out.
"I'm sorry, Victor. But we can't continue this partnership. Character concerns. The board decided this morning."
Victor's throat goes dry. "Thomas, let me explain what happened last night. I was upset. I had too much to drink. I didn't mean—"
"It's already decided." Thomas doesn't even look at him. He packs his briefcase and leaves the conference room.
Margaret and David follow him out within minutes.
Three investors gone. Just like that. The conference room door closes behind David and suddenly Victor is staring at the polished table with his CFO and his PR team looking at him like he's a sinking ship they just realized they're trapped on.
"How bad?" Victor's voice comes out hoarse.
His CFO James adjusts his glasses. He's pale. James is never pale.
"Stock dropped six percent overnight. We're looking at a loss of seventy million in market value. That's before the market opens fully. Could get worse."
The number doesn't even feel real. Seventy million dollars. Gone. Because Victor got drunk and angry and decided to humiliate his wife on live television.
"The major partners are requesting emergency calls," James continues. He slides a piece of paper across the table. A list of names. All of them people Victor has worked with for years. All of them suddenly needing to talk to him urgently.
"What do they want?" Victor asks but he already knows. He knows exactly what they want. They want assurance that the company is stable. That its CEO isn't unstable. That Kane Industries isn't going to collapse because its billionaire owner has a public breakdown.
"They want to know what your plan is," James says quietly.
Victor's PR team director Sarah clears her throat. She looks like she's about to deliver a death sentence.
"The social media response is catastrophic," Sarah says. She turns her laptop around and shows him the numbers. Thousands of comments. Tens of thousands. "People are calling you cruel. Heartless. One trending hashtag is literally just your name and the word monster."
Victor wants to tell her to turn the laptop away. He wants to leave this conference room and go find Nora and somehow undo the last twelve hours. But he can't move.
Sarah clicks through the comments. Most of them are brutal. Some are threatening. One person wrote "I hope his company burns for what he did to that woman."
Then Sarah stops on a specific tweet.
The photo shows Nora. Her face. The exact moment she realized what Victor was doing on that stage. Her hazel eyes are wide with shock and pain. Her mouth is slightly open like she's about to say something but the words got stuck. She looks completely shattered.
The tweet has five million views.
"The narrative is that you're a monster who humiliated an innocent woman," Sarah says quietly. "Every business news outlet is running with it. Investors are nervous. Partners are nervous. And honestly sir, the general public hates you right now."
Victor stares at that photo of Nora's face.
She looks so betrayed. So confused. So completely destroyed by what he did to her.
He tells himself she deserved it. That she did marry him for money. That he was right to call her out. That this is her fault for being a gold digger.
But the words feel hollow even in his own head.
Because looking at her face in that photo, Victor can't find anything that looks like greed. He can't find anything that looks like calculation or manipulation. All he sees is a woman who loved him and got her heart ripped out in front of five hundred people.
He can't stop looking at that photo.
Sarah is still talking. Something about damage control. About a public statement. About possibly taking some time away from the company. Victor hears the words but they're all muffled like he's underwater.
"Has anyone heard from Nora?" he asks suddenly.
James and Sarah exchange a look.
"No sir. Her credit card charges show a ticket to Tokyo purchased at 4am. She landed about an hour ago. After that, nothing."
Tokyo.
She's actually gone. She got on a plane and left the country. She didn't try to contact him. Didn't leave a note. Didn't do anything except leave her wedding ring on the kitchen counter and disappear.
And he deserved every second of it.
"We need to get ahead of this narrative," Sarah is saying. "We need to show that you're capable of moving forward. That the company is stable even with personal challenges."
"How do we do that?" Victor asks. His voice sounds strange. Hollow.
"You need to be seen. In public. Looking confident. Maybe at a social event. Somewhere the press can see you moving on, looking strong."
Moving on. Like Nora was just some inconvenience he got rid of. Like destroying her publicly and then replacing her was somehow a sign of strength.
The conference room door opens.
Eleanor walks in like she owns the space. She's followed by Juliet Ross, who's wearing a dress so perfect it looks like it was designed specifically for cameras.
"Mother, this is a closed meeting," Victor says.
"I know. I'm closing it for you." Eleanor sits down at the head of the table like she's the CEO instead of him. "Sarah, tell my son what you were suggesting about public appearances."
Sarah looks uncomfortable. "We were discussing the importance of being seen in public during this period. To show stability."
Eleanor smiles. It's not a warm smile. It's the smile of someone who just won a game Victor didn't know they were playing.
"Juliet has offered to help with that," Eleanor says. "She's willing to be seen with you publicly. At dinners. At events. To show that you're moving forward productively."
Juliet touches her hair and smiles at Victor. The smile of someone who's been waiting for exactly this moment.
"I think it's important for your company's reputation," Juliet says softly. "People need to see that you're okay. That you're ready to move forward with someone who actually appreciates you."
Eleanor nods like this was all her plan. Like she orchestrated every part of this. Whispering doubts about Nora into Victor's ear for three years. Getting him drunk last night. Watching him destroy his marriage. And now immediately replacing her with someone more suitable.
More controllable.
Victor looks at Juliet. At his mother. At Sarah who's watching him like she's waiting to see if he'll actually agree to this insanity.
And he realizes that his mother has been playing him the entire time.
She never wanted him to be happy. She wanted him to be alone. To be weak. To be dependent on her. And when Nora came along and actually made him happy, actually showed him what love could be, Eleanor couldn't stand it.
So she destroyed it.
And Victor, like an idiot, let her.
"No," Victor says.
Eleanor's expression hardens. "Excuse me?"
"I'm not going to be seen publicly with Juliet. I'm not going to pretend to move forward while my wife is on the other side of the world because I humiliated her. I'm not going to let you control me anymore."
He stands up from the table.
"Cancel all my meetings for the next week. I need to figure out how to fix what I've broken. And if that's not good enough for this company, then I'll step down."
He walks toward the door.
Eleanor's voice cuts across the room like ice.
"You're making a mistake, Victor. That girl will never forgive you. She's probably already moved on. You're throwing away your company's future for a wife who's already forgotten you exist."
Victor stops at the doorway.
He doesn't turn around.
But in his head, all he can see is Nora's face in that photo. The shattered look in her eyes. The betrayal written across every feature.
Eleanor is probably right.
Nora will never forgive him.
But that doesn't mean he should stop trying.