“She’s emotional today.”
The exchange representative looked at the documents.
“Without Ms. Eden’s signature, the listing cannot proceed.”
The room began to murmur.
Irwin’s smile froze.
A man in a gray suit walked onto the stage.
Ms. Jones.
She held a sealed envelope.
“I am legal counsel for Miss Karma Eden. As of this morning, Miss Eden has withdrawn her subscription rights and all IPO authorization tied to her founder shares. The listing ceremony is hereby terminated.”
Gasps moved across the room.
Cersei’s mouth opened.
Irwin looked at Ms. Jones as if she had spoken a curse.
“She can’t do that.”
“She can,” Ms. Jones said.
“This is my company.”
“No,” she replied. “It is the company she funded, structured, guaranteed, and legally protected while you mistook ownership for applause.”
Irwin grabbed his phone and called me.
I watched it ring from Landon’s car outside the hospital.
I did not answer.
He called again.
Again.
Then texted.
Stop playing games.
You’ll destroy everything.
Don’t forget what you did to Cersei.
Help me fix this or I’ll go to the police.
Landon read the messages without touching my phone.
“He’s threatening you with the staged assault.”
“Yes.”
“I can release the footage.”
“Not yet.”
His jaw flexed.
“Karma.”
I looked out the window at the hospital entrance.
A woman helped an old man into a wheelchair. A child in a yellow coat pressed both hands to the glass doors. Rain slid down the car window in thin silver threads.
“For fifteen years,” I said, “Irwin believed whatever version of me made him feel least guilty. If we release the truth too early, he’ll say he was tricked. I want him to choose the lie one more time in public.”
“That will hurt.”
“It already does.”
Landon’s hand rested on the seat between us.
Not touching mine.
Close enough to be chosen.
I placed my hand beside his, one inch away.
“Thank you for not asking me to forgive faster.”
He looked down at the space between our hands.
“I don’t want you fast. I want you free.”
That was when I realized love did not always arrive as hunger.
Sometimes it arrived as restraint.
After the failed IPO, Landon withdrew his billion-dollar investment.
K&E’s capital chain cracked within hours.
Minor shareholders panicked. Vendors froze shipments. Banks requested updated collateral. Employees whispered. Cersei cried in Irwin’s office and blamed me for sabotage.
Irwin came to find me at Eden House, the quiet office I had opened under my family name while he was still mocking me for being broke.
The Eden family fortune had begun in perfume generations ago. My grandparents built fragrances from rare oils, botanical formulas, and trade routes my father once called “memory in a bottle.” When my parents died, most people thought Eden died too. I let them.
I sold what Irwin could see.
I kept what mattered.
The formulas.
The land rights.
The quiet suppliers.
The old laboratories.
The name.
Landon stood beside me in Eden’s unfinished showroom as workers installed glass shelves.
Rows of empty perfume bottles caught morning light like small ghosts.
Irwin stormed in without an appointment.
“What the hell are you doing with him?”
I looked at him.
“Building.”
His eyes moved around the room.
Confusion flickered.
“What is this?”
“Eden.”
His face twisted.
“You’re playing boutique now? K&E is collapsing and you’re arranging perfume bottles?”
Landon stepped forward.
Irwin pointed at him.
“And you. Do you know what kind of woman she is? She sleeps her way through boardrooms. She uses men. You’re not special.”
Landon moved so quickly the air changed.
I touched his sleeve.
“Don’t.”
“Look at that. Still hiding behind rich men.”
I stepped closer.
“K&E will never go public without me.”
“You’re bluffing.”
“I’m not.”
“You would never destroy your own company.”
I looked at him for a long moment.
“K&E stopped being mine the night you gave my mother’s necklace to a woman who broke it.”
His face faltered.
Only slightly.
Then Cersei stumbled in behind him, breathless and pale.
“Irwin, please. Don’t fight them. I’ll apologize. I’ll do anything if they return the investment.”
“Do you still say I tried to kill you?”
Her tears gathered instantly.
“I didn’t want to press charges because I felt sorry for you.”
Landon opened the folder in his hand.
On the screen behind us, the security footage began to play.
No dramatic music.
No raised voices.
Just the old records room.
Cersei pulling the knife.
Cersei pressing it into my hand.
Cersei cutting her own arm.
Cersei screaming.
The room went silent.
Irwin stared at the screen.
His face drained.
Cersei whispered, “It’s edited.”
Ms. Jones, standing near the projector, said, “The original has been preserved with timestamp metadata, server backup, and third-party authentication. We can go to the police now.”
Cersei looked at Irwin.
“Don’t you trust me?”
That sentence used to work on him.
This time, it met evidence.
Irwin turned slowly.
“Why?”
Cersei’s mouth trembled.