I laughed softly. “That’s where you’re wrong. The only regret I have is not doing this sooner.”
More silence.
Then his voice dropped into something almost broken. “Did you ever love me?”
The question caught me off guard for a moment. I considered lying. I considered telling him no, that it had all been a facade, that he had never mattered.
But that would have been too easy.
And the truth was far worse.
“I did,” I admitted. “I loved you more than you ever deserved.”
His breathing hitched.
“And that,” I added, my voice steady and unyielding, “is why I’m done.”
I ended the call before he could speak.
It was over.
But not for Liam.
I turned and walked toward my next destination—a coffee shop just a few blocks away. Inside, waiting at a corner table, was a man dressed in a sharp suit, a laptop open in front of him. He glanced up as I approached, nodding in acknowledgement.
“You did well,” he said, gesturing for me to sit.
I took a seat, folding my hands in my lap. “Is it enough?”
His lips curved into a slow smirk. “More than enough.”
I exhaled. “Good.”
We sat in silence for a moment before he slid a folder toward me. “This is everything you asked for. Liam’s financials. His personal accounts. His hidden investments.”
I opened the folder, scanning the contents.
It was worse than I thought.
He chuckled, watching my reaction. “You want the final blow?”
I met his gaze. “Yes.”
“Then I suggest you drop this where it’ll do the most damage.”
I snapped the folder shut. “I know just the place.”
Liam had spent years trying to tear me down—feeding Ethan’s arrogance, whispering in his ear like a parasite. He thought he was untouchable.
He wasn’t.
The next morning, the headlines changed.
Breaking: internal corruption uncovered—executive under federal investigation.
Liam’s name was right there in the first paragraph. Ethan was mentioned by association.
I sipped my coffee as I read, watching the world react in real time—friends, colleagues, investors, one by one distancing themselves, cutting ties, issuing statements.
By noon, Liam had called me four times.
I didn’t answer.
By evening, Ethan’s number appeared again.
I blocked it.
The reckoning had come, and it had come swiftly.
The last message I received that night was from an unknown number.
“You ruined us.”
I stared at it for a long moment before typing back.
“Me? You ruined yourselves.”
Then I turned off my phone, and for the first time in years, I slept soundly.
The morning after everything unraveled, I woke up to silence—not the heavy, suffocating kind I had endured for years, the silence of being ignored, belittled, made to feel invisible.
No.
This was different.
A peaceful stillness, the kind that followed a storm after it had ripped through everything in its path, leaving only truth behind.
I sat up in bed and stretched, my body lighter than it had felt in years. No more waking up with the nagging weight of wondering if today would be the day I finally saw the truth about Ethan.
I had already seen it.
I had already exposed it for the world to witness.
Now, there was nothing left but the ruins of his own making.
Reaching for my phone, I scrolled through the latest updates. The headlines were relentless.
Liam caught in financial scandal—facing legal investigation. Ethan Murphy under scrutiny. Company stocks plummet amidst internal crisis.
Every article, every comment thread, every discussion was confirmation that the power Ethan and Liam had once wielded was slipping through their fingers.
The people who had once admired them were now distancing themselves, turning their backs, pretending they had never been allies.
Ethan had disappeared.
I checked my messages. No new calls. No texts.
The silence was telling.
He was still reeling, still trying to figure out how everything had collapsed so quickly.
