Chapter 2

“Ms. Sterling, the company’s stock price has plummeted by 30%.”

My assistant, Alex, reported, head bowed, voice trembling.

I stared at my phone screen. The top five trending topics on Ins were all dominated by the engagement party fiasco.

Under the hashtag #HeirDefiesArrangedMarriageForLove, the comments were a furious deluge.

“Oh, so she has a few bucks, big deal? He clearly has true love, but she forced him into marriage. Shameless bitch, she deserved to be dumped!”

“Good job, Mr. Blackwood! Let that manipulative bitch know what karma feels like!”

“Sterling Corp should just collapse. This trash company doesn’t deserve to exist!”

Page after page, every single comment was an accusation against me, calling me a monster.

I calmly scrolled through them until Liam Blackwood’s latest statement popped up.

[Finally free. From now on, I’ll be running towards a new future with the woman I love most.]

The accompanying photo was a close-up of him and Holly Thorne, their fingers intertwined.

That engagement ring, which should have been ours, was now gleaming on someone else’s hand.

I stared at those words for a long time, then a laugh escaped my lips.

“Notify the legal department. Immediately initiate the highest level of clawback clauses. Terminate all collaborations with Blackwood Industries!”

Alex’s hand visibly trembled, his voice a slight tremor.

“Ms. Sterling, shouldn’t we issue a statement first to explain? The entire internet is crucifying us right now…”

“What’s there to explain?”

I cut him off, slamming my phone onto the desk.

“There’s no need to entangle myself further with a man who breaks his word like this.”

I rubbed my throbbing temples, sinking deeper into the plush sofa.

Memories flashed before my eyes.

Five years ago, the Blackwood family was on the brink of bankruptcy. At an auction, Liam made a desperate bid, hoping to save their last ancestral estate.

Everyone in the room was just waiting to watch him fail.

Only I saw the unconcealed defiance in his eyes. I stepped in, bought the estate, and gifted it to him, free of charge.

He had nothing then. He saw me as his last hope, kneeling at my feet, pledging:

“Victoria Sterling, if you help the Blackwood family, I’ll do anything for you.”

I chuckled softly, helping him up. “Alright, but you’ll have to marry me.”

He gritted his teeth in anger, yet his eyes sparkled with a desperate light.

To help Blackwood Industries through its crisis, I pushed myself to the limit at countless business dinners, once even ending up with a stomach hemorrhage.

He stayed by my hospital bed, his eyes red-rimmed, telling me, “Victoria Sterling, don’t ever do that again.”

Looking at his eyes, so full of me, I felt it was all worth it.

I thought we were each other’s destined salvation.

I used Sterling Corp’s resources and network to help him rebuild his commercial empire.

I taught him how to be a competent businessman.

Blackwood Industries transformed from a struggling small company into a top-tier multinational corporation.

But our relationship, too, began to sour.

He started resisting intimacy, rejecting my plans, even yearning for the “purity” of the past.

That so-called poor student, Holly Thorne, appeared at precisely that moment.

He projected all his obsession with the past onto this girl.

A month before the engagement party, I had warned him directly:

“Liam Blackwood, the importance of this alliance doesn’t need explaining. I expect you to maintain appropriate boundaries.”

He fiddled with his teacup, dismissing me offhandedly.

“Don’t make a big deal out of it. I just treat Holly like a little sister.”

“Her family is struggling, what’s wrong with me helping her out?”

I lowered my voice, reminding him:

“She’s an adult. She can work for herself now.”

He suddenly smashed his teacup. “That’s different! When did you become so cold-blooded?”

“You’re just a soulless corporate shark now, obsessed with profit! Holly is so much purer than you!”

It was then that I realized he was no longer the lost and desperate heir who had once needed me.

He was now desperate to break free from my control.

I chose to compromise, treating him merely as a strategic partner for the alliance.

As long as he cooperated, everything would remain the same.

But I forgot how easily hearts change, especially men’s.

The office door was suddenly flung open.

Liam Blackwood burst in, radiating a dangerous aura, with Holly Thorne trailing carefully behind him.

I glanced at him, my voice cold. “Something wrong?”

Seeing my demeanor, he pulled a document from his bag and slammed it onto my desk.

“Let’s call off the engagement.”

He coolly pulled Holly down to sit beside him. “Let’s part ways amicably, with some dignity.”

I let out a cold laugh. “Liam Blackwood, do you even have the right to say that?”

“Where was your dignity yesterday when you publicly humiliated the Sterling family at the engagement party?”

I stood up, my fingertips pressed against the conference table, my eyes glinting with icy contempt.

“You didn’t just ruin an engagement party; you destroyed three years of strategic partnership between two families.”

“You threw away five years of business development in this city. Are you really so clueless?!”