Chapter 114
No.1
Elisa stood up. The heavy wooden chair scraped against the floorboards, the sound cutting sharply through the sickening chorus of congratulations.
Tessa stood up immediately after her. But the young researcher couldn't hold her tongue any longer. The injustice was suffocating.
Tessa buttoned her blazer. She turned her small frame and locked a nervous, but defiant gaze directly onto August at the head of the table.
"Mr. Chambers," Tessa said. Her voice trembled slightly, but it carried across the quiet room. "As Aethel's primary partner in this venture, I have a professional curiosity I'd like to satisfy."
The laughter and clapping around the table died instantly. The JHU doctors shrank back into their seats, sensing the sudden, awkward shift in the room's barometric pressure. A junior researcher was addressing the billionaire directly.
August leaned back slowly into his chair. He crossed his hands over his flat stomach. His dark eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.
No.2
"Go on," August commanded, his voice a block of ice.
Tessa swallowed hard, gesturing nervously toward Elisa.
"Aethel's background checks are extremely thorough, especially for someone with Elisa's high-level security clearance," Tessa began, enunciating her words carefully. "I've heard rumors that Elisa's husband is actually a man of immense power.A titan in the New York medical and financial sectors."
Tessa paused. She let the silence stretch for two agonizing seconds. She leaned forward slightly, her anxiety masked by genuine curiosity.
"You are the undisputed king of New York commerce, Mr. Chambers," Tessa said."Given your extensive network, are you truly telling me you have absolutely no idea who this powerful man is?"
The question dropped into the center of the table like a live fragmentation grenade.
No.3
The room went dead silent. The JHU doctors looked back and forth between the researcher and the billionaire, completely confused. They thought Tessa was just using Elisa to challenge August's intelligence network.
But Allena understood the threat. The blood instantly vanished from her face. Her skin turned a sickly, translucent white. She stared at August in absolute terror, her fingernails digging into her own palms. If August lost his temper and claimed his territory, her entire fairy tale would burn to the ground.
Elisa's boots stopped moving. Her spine locked into a rigid, perfectly straight line. She did not turn around. She kept her back to the table, but every muscle in her body pulled tight.
This was it. For the first time in seven years,someone had dragged the ghost of her marriage into the light and shoved it directly into August's face.
August's pupils contracted to pinpricks. He stared at Tessa. He saw the trap perfectly laid out before him.
If he admitted he knew the husband,he would be forced to explain his intimate knowledge of a "low-level nurse," destroying his untouchable facade in front of Allena and his sycophants.
No.4
If he denied it, he would be publicly executing his own marriage, throwing his title as her husband into the dirt for everyone to step on.
Time froze. August's gaze drifted past Tessa. He looked at the back of Elisa's cream-colored sweater. He looked at her rigid posture. He remembered her calling him trash.He remembered the dead, empty look in her eyes.
A sick, twisted wave of jealous pride violently hijacked his brain. He would not give this junior employee the satisfaction of a confession. He would rather destroy the truth than share it.
August slowly pulled his gaze back to Tessa. He picked up his coffee cup and took a slow,deliberate sip.
"Miss Vaughn," August said. His voice was entirely devoid of human emotion. It was the voice of a machine executing a deletion protocol. "My time is extremely valuable. I do not care, nor do I have the patience, to investigate the pathetic private lives of irrelevant,bottom-feeder employees."
August set the cup down. The ceramic clicked sharply against the saucer.
No.5
"Whether her husband is a homeless beggar or the Mayor of New York," August stated, his eyes cold and dead, "he means absolutely nothing to me."
The words echoed off the stone walls. They were absolute.Irrevocable.
The JHU doctors immediately nodded in vigorous agreement, relieved that the boss had put the arrogant tech researcher in her place. They sneered at Elisa's back, cementing her status as a nobody.
Allena let out a massive, shuddering exhale. The color rushed back to her cheeks, and she smiled,her victory absolute.
Tessa stared at August. A look of profound,unfiltered disappointment crossed her face. She shook her head slowly.
"I thought you were better than this," Tessa muttered under her breath, just loud enough for the table to hear.
No.6
Elisa stood frozen near the hallway.
Irrelevant,bottom-feeder employee.
The words didn't break her heart. They acted like a chemical sealant, freezing the last bleeding wounds in her chest into solid, unfeeling stone.⑤
She didn't gasp. She didn't cry. She took one slow,deep breath, pulling the freezing Aspen air into her lungs.She locked the vault on her past forever.
She did not turn around to look at the man she had married. She simply stepped forward, her boots
clicking steadily against the floor, and walked down the hallway toward the conference room, leaving the ghost of Mrs. Chambers dead in the lobby.