morning.
“You are helping her punish me.”
“No,” Helena said.
“I am preventing you from destroying the company while you panic.”
“I need to find my family.”
“You had a family.
You treated it like furniture.”
He ended the call, but the sentence stayed with him.
The penthouse had become unbearable.
Every room contained evidence of Isabella’s invisible labor.
A drawer held handwritten notes about his father’s medication.
A kitchen binder contained allergies and birthdays for every member of staff.
In his study, Richard found six years of organized correspondence with charities he publicly claimed to manage.
He also found a framed certificate hidden behind a row of financial books.
It recognized Isabella Vale for leading the Sterling Global restructuring that had saved 8,400 jobs.
Richard had never seen it.
On the eighth day, Marcus called from the lobby.
“Mr.
Sterling, Ms.
Winters is here.”
Richard almost refused to see her.
Then he remembered the leaked acquisition plans.
Khloe entered wearing a beige coat and no makeup.
Without the office, the penthouse, or Richard’s protection around her, she looked younger and far less certain.
“They’re making me the villain,” she said.
“Did you send the Northstar information?”
“I was protecting myself.”
“By selling company secrets?”
Khloe’s mouth tightened.
“Haines Capital offered me a position.
I needed an alternative in case you went back to playing devoted husband.”
Richard stared at her.
“You told me you loved me.”
She gave a bitter laugh.
“You told Isabella that once too.”
He looked toward the bedroom where Khloe had deliberately left her earring.
“Did you want her to find out?”
Khloe did not answer quickly enough.
Richard understood.
The perfume, the receipts, the messages arriving during dinner—none of it had been careless.
“You pushed her out.”
“I showed her the truth.”
“You humiliated her in her own home.”
Khloe stepped closer.
“And you let me.”
That was the one accusation he could not deny.
She asked him for money and legal protection.
When he refused, she threatened to tell reporters that Isabella had manipulated the trust to kidnap his unborn child from him.
Richard opened the apartment door.
“Get out.”
Khloe stared at him as if she had misheard.
“You threw away your wife for me.”
“No,” he said.
“I threw her away for myself.”
Khloe left, but her threat was not empty.
The following morning, a tabloid published a story claiming Isabella had vanished with a billionaire heir after secretly seizing control of Sterling Global.
Khloe was quoted anonymously as a concerned friend who feared Isabella was emotionally unstable.
Reporters surrounded the penthouse.
Cameras waited outside Sterling headquarters.
Online strangers debated whether Isabella was a victim, a criminal, or a calculating wife who had planned everything.
Richard’s public relations team prepared a statement blaming Khloe and affirming his commitment to Isabella.
He refused to approve it.
Instead, he walked into an emergency board meeting and found the directors preparing to remove him as chief executive.
Sterling Global’s lenders had invoked review clauses.
Northstar had abandoned negotiations.
The unauthorized search requests had created regulatory concerns.
Richard’s behavior had become a greater threat to the company than the affair itself.
David Mercer spoke without anger.
“You have confused ownership with immunity for years.
The company cannot survive another week of this.”
Richard looked around
