I ABANDONED MY WIFE FOR FOUR DAYS TO SPOIL MY MISTRESS—AND BY THE TIME I RETURNED, MY WIFE HAD NEARLY DIED ALONE IN THE SNOW

The vote took less than eleven minutes.

Out of the sixteen board members present, fourteen voted in favor of my immediate, unsalaried suspension. Even Lord Sterling—the man I had considered a mentor for a decade—raised his hand without looking me in the eye.

My executive access cards were revoked on the spot. My corporate email was disconnected before I even stepped out of the boardroom.

Twenty minutes later, I walked down the grand marble hallway of my own corporate headquarters, flanked by two private security officers who had been instructed to escort me from the premises.

Clara stood by the executive elevators, holding her cane, waiting for her private car.

I stopped ten feet away from her, motioning for the security guards to stay back.

“Are you happy now, Clara?” I asked, my voice raw, ragged, and trembling with a bitter, pathetic rage. “You’ve destroyed the company. You’ve destroyed our reputation. You’ve wiped out billions in shareholder value just to get revenge for an affair!”

Clara slowly turned her head to look at me.

There was no victory in her face. No smug satisfaction. Only an unyielding, terrifying calm.

“I didn't destroy this company, Ethan,” she said softly. “You destroyed it the moment you decided that your greed, your vanity, and your mistress mattered more than truth, integrity, and honor. I am simply clearing away the wreckage.”

“I offered to apologize!” I shouted, stepping closer. “I was coming back to Denver! I would have given up Sophia! I would have done anything!”

Clara let out a small, quiet laugh—a sound so hollow it made my stomach twist.

“You didn't come back for me, Ethan,” she whispered, leaning heavily on her cane as the elevator doors slid open behind her. “You came back because the headlines threatened your stock price. You didn't even know I was missing until four days after the avalanche.”

She stepped into the elevator cabin and turned around to face me.

“You promised me eleven years ago that if I ever got lost in the snow, you’d search until you couldn't stand,” she said, her voice dropping into a chilling, absolute finality. “You didn't look for me once. Now, Ethan... try searching for yourself.”