“Yes, sir.”
The woman handed Ethan the tablet.
“The board meeting is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Investors are already responding to the announcement.”
Claire looked at him.
“Announcement?”
Ethan glanced at the screen.
Then at her.
“I was planning to tell you tomorrow.”
“Tell me what?”
He smiled.
“That after three years of hiding, I’m returning as CEO of Vale Meridian publicly.”
Claire stared.
The man her family laughed at.
The man they called a burden.
The man they assumed had nothing.
Was about to appear on every business network in the country.
Before she could respond, another voice interrupted.
“Claire?”
They turned.
Mason stood frozen near the hotel entrance.
His face had completely changed.
Behind him, Vanessa was staring at the employees surrounding Ethan.
At the executives.
At the vehicles.
At the woman who had just called him Mr. Vale.
For the first time all night…
Nobody was laughing.
Mason slowly looked at Ethan.
“You’re…”
Ethan waited.
Mason swallowed.
“You’re Ethan Vale?”
The silence that followed was almost satisfying.
Claire watched her brother’s confidence disappear.
But Ethan did not insult him.
He simply nodded.
“Yes.”
Mason’s face went pale.
Because suddenly every cruel joke he had made was no longer harmless.
Every photograph.
Every comment.
Every person he had told that Claire had married a poor disabled man.
They all existed.
And Ethan had saved every single one.
Then Ethan looked at the tablet again.
His expression changed.
Claire noticed.
“What?”
He turned the screen toward her.
There was a report from his legal team.
A report about Mason.
And at the top was one sentence:
The unauthorized investor meeting was not an accident. Someone inside Vale Meridian gave him access.
Claire looked up.
“Someone helped him?”
Ethan nodded slowly.
“Yes.”
“Who?”
His eyes moved toward Mason.
Then toward Vanessa.
And finally toward the wedding guest list.
Because hidden inside the report was a name Claire recognized.
A name that meant this was never just about humiliating her.
Someone had used her wedding to get close to Ethan Vale.
And they had planned it long before anyone laughed.
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