CHAPTER 2 — "The Secret Everyone Buried for Twenty Years."
The ballroom became so silent that even breathing sounded loud.
No one understood what they were seeing.
The most powerful businessman in the country...
Richard Blackwood...
A billionaire feared by governments and admired by Wall Street...
Was kneeling before a maid.
Vanessa blinked in confusion.
"Dad..."
"What are you doing?"
Richard ignored her completely.
His eyes remained fixed on Grace.
His voice trembled.
"...Is it really you?"
Grace stared back in shock.
She recognized those eyes.
The same gray eyes she had seen only once before...
Twenty years ago.
Before her entire world collapsed.
She whispered only one word.
"Richard..."
The billionaire closed his eyes.
A single tear rolled down his face.
The guests looked at each other in disbelief.
"She knows his first name?"
"Who is she?"
"This can't be real."
Richard carefully reached toward Grace's bleeding hand.
His fingers shook violently as he saw the tiny cuts.
"You've been hurt..."
Grace quietly pulled her hand away.
"I've learned to live with pain."
Those words struck him harder than any insult ever could.
Vanessa stormed forward.
"Security!"
"Throw this woman out!"
Before anyone could move...
Richard stood.
His face had completely changed.
His warm eyes disappeared.
Now there was only ice.
He turned slowly toward his daughter.
"Did..."
"...you slap her?"
Vanessa forced a nervous smile.
"Dad, she's only a servant."
SMACK!
This time...
The slap echoed even louder than the first.
Vanessa stumbled backward, her expensive heel snapping against the marble floor.
Every guest gasped.
Richard's voice thundered through the ballroom.
"She is worth more than everyone in this room combined."
Silence.
Absolute silence.
Nobody understood.
Vanessa held her burning cheek.
"W-What are you talking about?"
Richard took a slow breath.
Then he revealed the secret his family had hidden for two decades.
"Twenty years ago..."
"Our company was bankrupt."
"The banks refused to help."
"The investors disappeared."
"I was finished."
He slowly turned toward Grace.
"There was only one person who believed in me."
The ballroom stared at the maid.
Richard continued,
"She sold everything she owned."
"Her jewelry."
"Her house."
"Even the medical fund she had saved for her dying mother."
"She gave me every dollar."
"So I could build Blackwood Group."
The guests stood frozen.
Richard's voice cracked.
"I promised I would return for her."
"But the day I came back..."
"...she had disappeared."
Grace lowered her eyes.
"My mother died."
"I had nothing left."
"So I changed my name."
"I never wanted anything from you."
Richard looked devastated.
"I searched for you for twenty years."
Grace smiled sadly.
"And yet..."
"...your own daughter made me crawl across your floor."
Vanessa's face turned white.
"N-No..."
"That's impossible..."
Richard slowly removed a thick leather folder from his briefcase.
He handed it to Grace in front of everyone.
"I've been carrying this for twenty years."
She opened it.
Inside were the original partnership papers.
The first page bore only two signatures.
Richard Blackwood.
Grace Miller.
The percentage listed beside Grace's name made every executive lose color in their faces.
50% Ownership.
Grace wasn't just a maid.
She was...
The forgotten co-founder of the billion-dollar empire everyone had worshipped.
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And with one signature...
She could destroy the Blackwood family forever.
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