Chapter 2 - The Social Media Mirage
Chloe stared at the sparkling six-carat diamond ring, her mouth open in breathless, utter regret. The live stream on her phone was still running, but her mind had completely frozen.
"Ethan... you were... going to marry me?" Chloe stammered, stepping forward on her high heels as her confident persona cracked into sheer panic.
"I was," Ethan replied, his expression completely unreadable as white frosting still clung to his collar. "I thought you were the humble woman who spent six months volunteering at my mother’s foundation. I thought you cared about me."
For two years, Chloe had carefully crafted an image of a devoted, loving partner. But behind her sweet social media posts and gentle public demeanor lay a mountain of mounting debt and ruthless ambition.
Chloe came from an old-money family that had gone quietly bankrupt five years ago. To maintain her luxurious lifestyle, she had leveraged her high-profile relationship with Ethan, the sole heir to the multi-billion-dollar Vance Logistics conglomerate.
Slamming his face into the birthday cake was supposed to be her ultimate social media stunt—a trending video that would guarantee her a million-dollar brand sponsorship before the end of the night. She had calculated that Ethan loved her too much to ever make a scene in public.
She had calculated entirely wrong.
Ethan snapped the red velvet ring box shut with a sharp, echoing click, slipping it back into his jacket pocket.
"The ring was just the beginning," Ethan stated coldly. "Now you get nothing."
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Chloe frantically reached out to grab his arm, but Ethan stepped back, leaving her clutching thin air in front of two hundred wealthy spectators.
👉 Read Part 3 to see what secrets were hidden inside the confidential audit folder.
