Chapter 1 - The Weight of an Anniversary
The pristine, glass-walled lobby of the Ethan Group headquarters felt like a public theater where the comedy was cruel and the tragedy belonged entirely to Sophia. Ethan’s fingers tightened around the heavy parchment of the divorce agreement, the edges crinkling under his sudden, irrational grip. Around them, executive assistants, senior vice presidents, and low-level interns frozen in their tracks, lowering their heads but keeping their ears wide open.
"A divorce?" Ethan murmured, the word tasting like ash and disbelief on his tongue. He looked from the document down to Uncle Lou, his jaw tightening into a rigid line. "She signed this? Sophia?"
"Yes, Master Ethan," Uncle Lou said, his voice level and devoid of the trembling submission he had exhibited for the past twenty-four months. He stood straight, the posture of a man who was no longer serving a household, but delivering a decree from an empire. "Young Madam spent exactly three minutes reviewing the terms before affixing her signature. She requests that you sign it immediately so the registry can be updated by noon."
Chloe let out another sharp, musical laugh, her fingers tracing the lapel of Ethan’s bespoke grey suit jacket. "Oh, Ethan, please. Don't tell me you're actually bothered by this. The cripple is throwing a tantrum because she found out about us. She thinks by threatening to leave, you’ll come crawling back to that gold-trimmed cage, begging for forgiveness. It’s pathetic. She has no family left, no money of her own, and she can't even stand up to pack her own bags. Where is she going to go? A charity hospital?"
Ethan’s irritation flared, but it wasn't directed at Chloe; it was directed at the unsettling, cold certainty radiating from Uncle Lou. For two years, Sophia had been the perfect, silent victim. After the car accident that had claimed her parents' lives and left her legs paralyzed, the Ethan family had swooped in like saints, marrying her to Ethan to "protect" her inheritance and show Jiang City their immense philanthropic grace. In reality, they had systematically absorbed her family’s minor logistics companies, leaving her with nothing but a velvet wheelchair and a room at the back of the mansion.
"She’s playing a dangerous game," Ethan said, his voice dropping into a low, transactional rumble. He handed the paper back to his assistant, refuse to let the lobby see him rattled. "Tell her I will not be manipulated by a woman who relies on my family for her medical bills. If she wants to divorce me, she can come to the boardroom herself and ask for it. Until then, file this under 'frivolous' and clear my schedule for the strategy meeting."
"Master Ethan," Uncle Lou said as Ethan began to walk toward the executive elevator bank. The old butler didn't move an inch. "The Young Madam anticipated your response. She told me to remind you of one specific detail."
Ethan stopped, his back to the butler. "What detail?"
"She said that two years ago, you didn't just marry a girl in a wheelchair," Uncle Lou said, his words dropping like heavy stones into the quiet lobby. "You married the primary shareholder of the Shengheng Network. And the lock on the vault expires today at midnight."
Ethan stiffened. A cold prickle of sweat formed at the base of his neck. The Shengheng Network was the largest, most tightly encrypted data and maritime tracking matrix in the entire province. When Sophia’s parents died, the global master keys to that network had been placed into a blind corporate trust that no one—not even the courts—could touch until the second anniversary of her marriage, provided she was of sound mind or sought a legal dissolution of the estate.
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He turned around slowly, his eyes wild with sudden calculation. "What did you say?"
But Uncle Lou had already turned his back, walking out through the grand revolving doors into the thin, gray fog of Jiang City, leaving Ethan standing in the center of his own empire with a sudden, suffocating sense that the floor beneath his custom leather shoes was no longer solid.
