12 CHAPTER 12
He stood tall, arms wide. “I’m unstoppable.” 1
He opened his mouth and shouted, “Let her go!”
He turned sharply, his voice raised and confident, barking at the personal security teams that had been called earlier. “I said get her off the stage! Now before the Victor family arrives. I don’t want them seeing this madness.”
But James was blind to that plan.
But before he could open his mouth again, a group of wealthy business partners seated in the front rows stood up in clear irritation.
“Oh no,” she replied smoothly. “I believe the judges are good people. But like everyone
else here… they were deceived.”
She turned slightly toward the crowd and raised her voice just enough for everyone to
hear.
One of them, Mr. Hanley, a steel magnate James had been working to secure a deal with,
snapped his fingers.
“You wouldn’t dare-” she started, voice trembling with fury.
Immediately James smiled.
Emily-his Emily-being dragged like a nobody, and the security obeying Cora?
It wasn’t loud but it didn’t need to be. The authority in the voice wasn’t about volume it
was about weight. And the moment it echoed, the entire room froze.
At that moment he turned to the crowd with a half-smile, brushing invisible dust from his
shoulder like a man too important to be disturbed. “She’s nothing but noise,” he added.
“I’ve come too far to let this kind of distraction ruin tonight. My name alone is enough to
make entire boards shiver. You think this will stop me? Not Cora. Not the devil. Not even
God.”
He considered stepping down from the stage, but hesitated. He hadn’t finished his
17.09
1/5
speech. He needed to regain control. He needed to clean up the chaos Cora had brought before it wrecked everything he built.
“James…” she said with amusement, “you’ll be kissing every foot you mocked very soon.”
“She’s having nightmares because I’m rising so fast, and those nightmares will only get worse until she drops to her knees and begs for forgiveness.”
“Get her off that stage!” he ordered his personal security detail.
Even James’s face drained of color.
The guests gasped as the scene unfolded. Some pulled out their phones, while others whispered frantically behind raised hands. The elegance of the Dazzling Red Event Hall cracked under the weight of the spectacle.
At that moment Four large bodyguards immediately began pushing their way toward the stage, their movements firm and intentional. The air buzzed with even more tension.
James, still holding his dead mic on stage, watched in horror.
Only when he had truly lost it all, when his chest was tight with regret and his pride broken by truth, would she reveal the face behind the empire he thought he built alone.
Then she laughed a soft, elegant chuckle that dripped with warning.
The security men stopped mid-step.
Guests turned their heads as silence swept the hall like a cold wind.
The tone was sharp, Commanding.
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing, what the hell is going on? His heart pounded. The image was spinning out of control.
She smiled wider, the glint in her eye like a blade under silk.
He couldn’t believe how convincingly she was performing. It was like watching a stage actress play queen in a play he hadn’t approved.
Her eyes scanned the crowd.
“Get your hands off me!” Emily shrieked, kicking and twisting in her heels. “Do you know who I am?! I’ll have your jobs taken away, I’ll ruin all of you!”
Cora met his glare with a calm smile, hands folded neatly in front of her.
Because the voice belonged to none other than the eldest young master of the Victor
family.
Cora stood there, calm as ever, watching James fume on stage as if he were the rightful king of the night. But deep inside, she wasn’t here to destroy him all at once. That would be too easy, she wanted him to feel it.
“And very soon, they’ll begin to see it. You’ll all begin to see it that every single one of you were wrong about James Lorenzo.”
“Stand down.”
She wanted James to stumble through endless meetings, pitch ideas and be rejected, call people who used to greet him with reverence only to be ignored. She wanted him to chase projects the way hungry men chase crumbs. To hustle, beg, and fall until he realized the only reason those doors ever opened for him…was her.
At that moment Emily’s face contorted in disbelief.
She walked up the steps of the stage like she owned them, her white dress flowing behind her like a battle flag. The audience parted their attention between her and James, stunned.
“What nonsense are you saying now?” he barked, trying to force a laugh. “Are you accusing the judges of being incompetent? Are you saying the Victor family the hosts of this event don’t know how to choose a winner?”
The room was heavy with tension. The security men stepped forward, heading toward Cora.
But before she could finish, the security men moved.
The crowd was tense, split between confusion, curiosity, and doubt.
He stepped forward again and raised his voice. “This right here,” he said confidently, “is exactly why I’m grateful I divorced her before the real fame started.”
12 CHAPTER 12
Finally things were going his way.
But without a working microphone, his voice barely reached the third row.
At that moment he stepped toward her slightly, fire flashing in his eyes. “Cora, watch your mouth. If you’re not careful, you’ll ruin your own life completely.”
But Cora wasn’t done.
Two grabbed her arms, firm but professional, while another gestured toward the exit. The others surrounded her to block the crowd’s view, though their silence only made the
moment louder.
William Victor.
He looked at the crowd, his voice gaining strength, fueled by the arrival of reinforcements. “If I had stayed with her, she would’ve tarnished everything I built with her drama. My
ability… my talent… it’s driving her mad.”
However Cora didn’t flinch.
Immediately James turned to her, trying to keep his voice steady.
James pointed at Cora with full arrogance now.
Cora turned her head slowly, her eyes never leaving James.
James stood stiffly at the center of the stage, trying to mask the growing chaos with a
smirk, but beneath the surface, he was boiling. Cora’s presence, her words, the boldness
in her tone it was stealing the air out of the room and turning every head toward her.
But just as one of the men reached to grab her arm a voice cut through the air.
