Chapter 2
Lucas noticed the faint vibration from Isabella's clutch.
He smirked.
"Calling a divorce lawyer already?"
"No."
Isabella replied calmly.
"I don't need one."
Richard laughed into his whiskey.
"You'll need more than a lawyer after tonight."
"You've grown very accustomed to a certain lifestyle."
Helen nodded.
"The penthouse, the cars, the staff..."
"They all belong to the Carter family."
Isabella looked around the dining room.
The imported artwork.
The hand-carved mahogany table.
The antique chandelier Lucas proudly claimed he'd purchased in Paris.
"I know exactly where they came from."
Lucas frowned.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
She ignored him.
Instead, she opened the divorce agreement one final time.
Then quietly signed the last page.
Lucas smiled in satisfaction.
"I knew you'd eventually come to your senses."
She slid the documents back across the table.
"I'm signing because I don't want your name attached to mine for another minute."
Something about the way she said it made Sophie uncomfortable.
She shifted in her chair.
Lucas reached for the folder.
Before he could touch it—
Isabella's phone rang.
Emma Collins.
She answered immediately.
"Good evening, Emma."
The room remained silent.
Emma's calm voice echoed faintly through the speaker.
"Everything has been completed, Ms. Carter."
"Would you like me to proceed with Phase One?"
"Yes."
Isabella answered without hesitation.
"Execute every authorization."
"Immediately."
"Understood."
The call ended.
Lucas laughed.
"Very dramatic."
"What exactly is Phase One?"
Isabella folded her hands.
"You'll know in a moment."
Almost on cue—
Lucas's phone vibrated.
Then Richard's.
Then Helen's.
Three phones.
Three alerts.
Lucas frowned as he opened his banking app.
The smile disappeared from his face.
His available corporate accounts...
Displayed zero accessible funds.
"What..."
He refreshed the screen.
Nothing changed.
Richard pulled out his own phone.
His expression hardened.
"The investment account..."
He refreshed it again.
"It can't be."
Helen checked hers.
Every executive credit card attached to Carter Global Holdings had been suspended.
"This is impossible!"
Lucas stood so quickly that his chair crashed backward.
"What did you do?"
His voice echoed through the dining hall.
Isabella remained seated.
"Nothing illegal."
Richard slammed his phone onto the table.
"I'll have the bank manager fired!"
"You can certainly try."
She answered.
"But he reports to the board."
Lucas froze.
"The board reports to me."
Isabella slowly shook her head.
"No."
"It reports to the majority shareholder."
Silence.
Lucas stared at her.
"What majority shareholder?"
She looked directly into his eyes.
"My family."
No one spoke.
Sophie looked from Lucas to Isabella.
"I don't understand."
Richard laughed nervously.
"This is ridiculous."
"My father built Carter Global."
Isabella met his gaze.
"No."
"He saved the company once."
"My grandfather financed it."
Richard's smile faded.
She continued.
"Forty-two years ago, Carter Manufacturing was six weeks from bankruptcy."
"My grandfather, William Harrington, purchased fifty-one percent of the company through a private holding corporation."
Lucas blinked.
"That's impossible."
"You would've known."
"I wasn't finished."
She folded her hands neatly.
"The Harrington family never managed the company."
"We preferred remaining silent investors."
Richard's breathing became uneven.
"No..."
"No, that's..."
He couldn't finish.
Because suddenly...
He remembered.
A name.
One his father had mentioned decades earlier.
Harrington Capital.
The mysterious investors who had rescued the company.
No one had ever met them.
No one knew who represented them.
Lucas whispered,
"That's..."
"Your family?"
Isabella nodded once.
"My grandfather."
"My father."
"And after his retirement..."
She looked at Lucas with heartbreaking calm.
"Me."
The room seemed to stop breathing.
Richard's whiskey glass slipped from his fingers.
It shattered across the hardwood floor.
No one even looked at it.
Lucas slowly backed away.
"No..."
"I've been CEO for seven years."
"You were appointed CEO."
Isabella corrected softly.
"By a board elected by shareholders."
His face turned pale.
"You..."
"You own the company?"
"I own fifty-one percent."
"And tonight..."
She glanced briefly at her phone.
"The emergency shareholder meeting concluded."
Helen whispered,
"What meeting?"
"The one none of you were invited to."
Lucas felt his knees weaken.
"You can't remove me."
"I already did."
His eyes widened.
"What?"
She slid another document across the table.
Not divorce papers.
A board resolution.
Signed electronically by every director.
Effective immediately.
Lucas Carter was terminated as Chief Executive Officer.
Richard Carter was removed as Chairman Emeritus.
Every executive privilege associated with the Carter family had been revoked.
Lucas stared at the signatures.
His hands began shaking.
"No..."
"This isn't real."
"It is."
Isabella answered.
"And the notifications you're receiving now..."
More phones vibrated.
One after another.
Executives around the table opened their emails.
Faces drained of color.
One by one...
Every employment contract tied to the Carter family's authority had been suspended pending investigation.
Sophie looked at Lucas in panic.
"Lucas..."
"What's happening?"
He couldn't answer.
Because for the first time in his life...
He realized the empire carrying his family name...
Had never truly belonged to them.
May you like
And the woman they had tried to throw out of the house...
Had just taken it back without raising her voice.
