Madison tried to speak.
“I didn’t know that—”
I looked at her.
“You knew he was married.”
She said nothing after that.
Reeves offered his arm.
“The board is waiting for the official toast.”
I took a deep breath and walked toward the stage, leaving behind the life I’d tried to save.
I picked up the microphone.
“Tonight we celebrate our company’s growth,” I said. “But I want to remind everyone of something important: no success is worth it if you lose your humanity on the way up.”
Real applause filled the ballroom.
From the stage, I watched Grant being escorted out—defeated—finally understanding too late who he’d chosen to look down on.
And for the first time in years…
I felt free.
But as I stepped down from the stage, my personal assistant rushed over, her face tight with worry.
“Madam Chairwoman… we have a problem.”
“What is it?”
She lowered her voice.
“One of our subsidiaries in Austin was just hit with a cyberattack. And everything points to someone on the inside… someone very close to you.”
My heart kicked hard.
Because only three people had access to that level of information…
and one of them had just lost everything tonight.
The real battle was only beginning.
The news hit like ice water.