Chapter 7 - The Rats Desert the ShipVanessa stared at the DNA report on the table, her face twisting from shock into raw, unadulterated fury. She turned to Ethan, her voice dropping all its honeyed sweetness.
“You absolute idiot,” Vanessa hissed, shoving him backward.
“Vanessa, wait—” Ethan reached out, grabbing at empty air.
“Wait for what? To go down with a bankrupt loser?” Vanessa spun on her heel, grabbing her designer handbag off the back of her chair. She looked directly at Claire, forcing a tight, incredibly fake smile. “For the record, Ms. Hayes, I was only consulting for him professionally. He was the one who initiated the affair. He told me his wife was a parasite.”
“I heard every word, Ms. Cole,” Claire replied evenly. “And don’t worry—your consulting contract with Whitmore Construction has already been terminated. Along with your access to company expense accounts.”
Vanessa’s jaw dropped. She turned and sprinted out of the boardroom, the sound of her Christian Louboutin heels clicking frantically down the hallway until the heavy doors slammed shut behind her.
Margaret Whitmore clutched her chest, gasping for breath as she slumped into her chair. “Ethan... do something! Call our lawyers! Call our family friends! We can’t lose the house! We can’t lose the company!”
“There are no family friends left, Margaret,” Daniel Bell said coldly, closing his briefcase. “When you spend thirty years stepping on everyone around you, people don’t rush to your rescue when you fall. They bring popcorn.”
Ethan looked around the room—his mother broken, his mistress fled, his company seized, and his wife holding all the cards. He fell to his knees beside the chairman’s chair, staring up at Claire with tear-filled, bloodshot eyes.
“Claire... please,” he sobbed, his voice cracking into a pathetic whine. “I was insecure. Vanessa got inside my head. I was terrified of failing my father’s memory. Please... we have a family. For Lily’s sake...”
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Claire looked down at him. Not with anger. Not with hatred.
With absolute, crushing indifference.
