CHAPTER 2
Margaret's scream echoed through the ballroom.
Conversations stopped.
Music faded into awkward silence.
Even the photographers lowered their cameras.
She clutched the leather folder with both hands as though it had burst into flames.
"No!" she shouted again. "This is fake! It has to be fake!"
My father calmly stepped forward.
"I'd appreciate it if you returned my daughter's property."
She ignored him.
Instead, she flipped through page after page faster and faster.
Each document seemed to make her panic even more.
"What is it?" one guest asked.
"What's inside?"
Margaret slammed the folder shut.
"No one touches this!"
That reaction alone told everyone something was terribly wrong.
Daniel gently reached for it.
"Mom... let me see."
She pulled it away.
"No!"
The movement was so sudden that several documents slipped onto the polished marble floor.
One landed directly in front of Daniel.
He bent down.
Picked it up.
Read the first paragraph.
His face went completely pale.
"...Dad?"
His voice cracked.
"What is this?"
My father quietly answered.
"Read the second page."
Daniel did.
His hands began trembling.
"This... this says..."
He looked at me in disbelief.
"You own... fifty-one percent?"
The ballroom exploded into confused whispers.
"Own what?"
"What company?"
"What is happening?"
Margaret rushed to grab the paper back.
Too late.
One of Daniel's uncles had already picked up another document.
Then another guest found the sealed envelope.
Within seconds...
Several people were reading different pages.
And every expression changed from curiosity...
...to absolute shock.
Because the documents revealed something no one had ever imagined.
Months before the wedding...
My parents had quietly purchased a controlling share in Harrington Estates—the luxury real estate company that had made Margaret's family rich decades earlier.
The company had been collapsing under massive hidden debt.
Its original owners secretly sold their controlling shares to avoid bankruptcy.
Nobody in Margaret's family even knew.
They believed they still controlled the empire.
They didn't.
Not anymore.
Legally...
I did.
The silver keys weren't house keys.
They were the ceremonial executive keys presented to every new chairperson of the company.
The leather folder wasn't just paperwork.
It contained the official transfer of ownership.
And the sealed envelope?
It was my appointment as the new Chairwoman—effective the morning after my wedding.
Margaret looked ready to collapse.
"No..." she whispered.
"No... she can't..."
My father finally smiled.
"You kept saying our daughter didn't belong in your house."
He paused.
"So we bought the house."
Silence.
Complete silence.
Then another voice came from the back of the ballroom.
Cold.
Professional.
"Actually..."
Everyone turned.
A group of men and women in tailored business suits had just entered.
At their front stood the company's senior legal counsel.
He adjusted his glasses.
"Mrs. Margaret Harrington..."
He held up an official document.
"As of 9:00 this morning, your executive privileges have been permanently revoked."
Margaret staggered backward.
"What?"
The lawyer continued.
"And beginning tomorrow, all employees—including household staff—will report directly to the company's new owner..."
He turned toward me.
"...Mrs. Emily Carter."
Margaret stared at the maid's uniform still sitting on the gift table.
Then slowly looked back at me.
For the first time since I'd met her...
She realized the woman she had tried to turn into a servant...
Had just become the most powerful person in her entire family.
May you like
And the real revenge...
Hadn't even begun.
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