Three days passed without Ethan coming back to the penthouse. Sophia tracked his movements through the news feeds that covered the developing SEC investigation. Blake Ventures issued a statement indicating they would cooperate fully with the inquiry. Ethan's father went into damage control mode, hiring the best defense lawyers money could buy. The business world watched to see what would happen to one of New York's most prominent billionaire families.
Sophia watched from the penthouse, feeling like she was watching someone else's life unfold. She'd done the right thing by reporting the fraud. She'd also destroyed her marriage in the process.
Marcus called her repeatedly, trying to discuss business, but she kept hanging up. Work felt meaningless when everything else was falling apart. She spent most of her time in her office, staring at nothing, replaying conversations with Ethan in her mind, trying to identify the moment when she should have made a different choice.
On the fourth day, lawyers appeared at her office. They were representing Ethan's family, and they came bearing a dissolution of marriage agreement. The terms were straightforward: Ethan wanted out of the marriage, and he wanted to keep it quiet. He was willing to offer her a generous settlement to make that happen. Three hundred million dollars and complete privacy regarding the reasons for the separation.
"He's not contesting the dissolution?" Sophia asked the lead attorney.
"Mr. Blake believes the marriage was a contractual arrangement that served its purpose. Now that circumstances have changed, he's ready to move on."
The coldness of the language was deliberate. It was meant to sting. It was meant to make her understand that Ethan felt betrayed, that he was treating the marriage like the business contract it had started as.
"I'm not taking his money," Sophia said.
"I'd recommend reconsidering. Contested dissolutions can get messy, and given your current business relationship with Blake Industries, that messiness could affect your corporate interests."
It was a threat, delivered with the courtesy of high-priced attorneys. Ethan's family was going to make her pay for reporting the fraud. They were going to use the legal system to punish her for choosing ethics over family loyalty.
"Tell Ethan I'm not signing anything," Sophia said. "Tell him I want to hear from him personally if he wants to end this marriage."
The lawyers left, and Sophia sat in her office feeling numb. She'd expected Ethan to be angry. She'd expected him to feel betrayed. But she hadn't expected him to want a full dissolution. She'd thought they could weather this storm together, that their connection was strong enough to survive her betrayal.
She was wrong.
That night, she went to Ethan's office building. She'd learned years ago that the security guards at Blake Industries responded better to confidence than to credentials. She walked past the front desk like she belonged there, ignored the security guard's questions, and made her way up to the executive floor.
Ethan was working at his desk, surrounded by lawyers and documents. He looked exhausted and furious and like someone who'd been fighting a battle on multiple fronts. When he saw her, his jaw tightened.
"Get her out of here," he said to his team.
"Ethan, please. We need to talk."
"We have nothing to talk about. You made your choice. You reported my family to the SEC. You destroyed everything I've built with one action."
"I reported fraud. Your family's financial practices were predatory."
"And now my entire company is under investigation. Every decision I've made, every acquisition I've conducted, every business move is being scrutinized by federal agents. Do you have any idea what that does to investor confidence? Do you understand what you've done?"
Sophia moved closer to him, but one of his lawyers moved to intercept her. Ethan waved him off, and she was allowed to approach the desk.
"I did it because I couldn't ignore what I'd found," she said quietly. "I couldn't live with myself if I stayed silent about fraud, even if it meant exposing your family."
"You could have told me first. You could have given me the chance to fix it or explain it or do something other than have me find out from a news alert."
"Would you have fixed it? Or would you have convinced me to keep quiet?"
"We'll never know, will we? Because you didn't trust me enough to have that conversation." He stood, putting the desk between them like a barrier. "You're a brilliant businesswoman, Sophia. But you're also exactly what my father warned me about. You're a competitor first. Everything else comes second. The marriage, our connection, none of it matters when it conflicts with your principles."
"That's not fair."
"It's absolutely fair. You married a man you didn't trust, who was connected to a family you didn't understand, and when you found something you couldn't accept, you acted unilaterally. You didn't ask for forgiveness or understanding or partnership. You just reported us."
"Because I knew you wouldn't let me! I knew if I told you, you'd convince me to keep quiet!"
"Then you didn't trust me. And if you don't trust me, we have nothing."
The finality in his voice was absolute. Sophia felt something break inside her, felt the last hope of salvaging this slip away like water through her fingers.
"What happens now?" she asked.
"Now my lawyers and your lawyers work out the details of the dissolution. We'll both move on with our lives. In six months, we won't be married anymore."
"Is that really what you want?"
"It's what makes sense. We got married because of a contract. The contract has been invalidated by your actions, so the marriage becomes meaningless."
"It wasn't meaningless to me."
"Wasn't it?" He moved around the desk until he was standing in front of her. "You had a choice between your marriage and your principles. You chose your principles. That tells me exactly what you think the marriage is worth."
Security escorted her out of the building. As she rode the elevator down to the lobby, she caught her reflection in the polished steel walls. She saw a woman who'd won a battle and lost a war. She saw someone who'd chosen to be right over choosing to be happy.
She saw someone who was going to regret this decision for the rest of her life.
The news of their separation broke the next morning. The media, which had celebrated their unlikely romance, now feasted on the scandal of their breakup. Theories abounded about what had gone wrong. Some outlets suggested infidelity. Others suggested business conflicts. One particularly insightful reporter noted the timing of Ethan's desire for a dissolution with the timing of the SEC investigation into Blake Ventures.
By evening, the narrative had shifted. Instead of a fairytale romance destroyed by circumstances, the media told the story of a ruthless businesswoman who'd married her rival and then destroyed his company when she realized the marriage was inconvenient.
Sophia received calls from board members asking if the rumors about her and Ethan were true. She also received calls from business contacts who suddenly wanted to renegotiate deals or end partnerships. She'd won the competition with Ethan Blake, but the cost was everything she'd built with him.
Three weeks after their separation was announced, Sophia received a call from Ethan's personal attorney. The SEC investigation had concluded, and while Blake Ventures would face some fines and would need to restructure its acquisition strategy, no charges would be filed against Ethan personally. The investigation had determined that the aggressive acquisition tactics, while ethically questionable, were not technically illegal.
She'd reported them for fraud, and they'd come back with nothing but a slap on the wrist.
That night, she got drunk alone in the penthouse. She sat on the balcony overlooking the city and wondered what would have happened if she'd just told Ethan about what she'd found. She wondered if honesty and partnership could have solved the problem without destroying them.
By the time she stumbled to bed, she had a text message from Ethan: "I heard the SEC's findings. I suppose you're satisfied now."
She typed a response and deleted it three times before sending: "I'm sorry."
His response came almost immediately: "So am I."
But sorry didn't fix anything. Sorry didn't restore the trust she'd destroyed. Sorry didn't bring him back.
The dissolution papers were finalized six months later. Sophia signed them in her office, with only her lawyer as a witness. She didn't fight the settlement or the terms. She just signed away her marriage like she was terminating a business contract.
That night, she received a delivery at her apartment. It was a box containing everything she'd left at Ethan's penthouse. Her clothes, her toiletries, her personal items. Everything had been carefully packed and shipped like it was a return from an online retailer.
At the bottom of the box, wrapped in tissue paper, was the photo of them on their wedding day. The first wedding, the one that had been contractual obligation. She was smiling in the photo. So was he.
She'd destroyed this to preserve her integrity.
But as she held the photo, staring at the faces of two people who had genuinely cared for each other, she realized that integrity without compassion was just another word for selfishness.
And then came the call that changed everything.
It was from Ethan's mother. Catherine Blake's voice was urgent and panicked in a way that suggested something catastrophic had happened. "Sophia, you need to come to the hospital. Now. It's Ethan. He's been in an accident."