The grand ballroom of the Plaza Hotel was suffocatingly opulent, its crystal chandeliers casting a harsh, unforgiving light over the three hundred shareholders of Croft-Sterling Enterprises. The air hummed with tense murmurs, the clinking of water glasses, and the rustle of proxy ballots

The chaos in the ballroom was absolute. Flashbulbs strobed like a lightning storm as the press, who had been waiting outside for the vote results, breached the doors. They captured every pathetic angle of Arthur Sterling being read his Miranda rights.

"I have friends on the board!" Art

The shredded pieces of the marriage contract fluttered to the polished marble floor like snow, settling around Vivienne’s expensive heels.

In the vast, cavernous expanse of the executive boardroom, the silence that followed was absolute. The echoes of Arthur’s arrest, the outraged shou