Chapter 3 — The Flash Drive
Security surrounded Ethan.
But nobody moved.
Because everyone wanted answers.
Vivienne stared at the flash drive.
“What is on it?”
Ethan looked at her.
His expression was impossible to read.
“Proof.”
“Proof of what?”
He swallowed.
“Your father’s death.”
The ballroom went silent.
Vivienne felt like the floor disappeared beneath her.
“My father died in an accident.”
Ethan shook his head slowly.
“No.”
Her heart stopped.
“What did you say?”
Ethan looked toward Eleanor.
Then Chloe.
“They lied to you.”
Eleanor suddenly shouted:
“Don’t listen to him!”
Everyone turned.
For the first time, Eleanor looked afraid.
Not angry.
Afraid.
The security team moved closer.
“Give us the device.”
Ethan looked at Vivienne.
“I was wrong.”
A tear appeared in his eyes.
“I should have told you years ago.”
Vivienne felt nothing.
Not forgiveness.
Not sympathy.
Only betrayal.
“You helped them destroy me.”
Ethan lowered his head.
“Yes.”
The honesty shocked everyone.
“I did.”
He looked back at the flash drive.
“But I found out what they were really planning.”
The elevator alarm started ringing.
Security grabbed his arm.
But before they took him away, Ethan threw the flash drive toward Vivienne.
She caught it.
“Open the file called…”
He hesitated.
Then whispered:
“BLACK ROSE.”
The security officers dragged him away.
The ballroom remained frozen.
Vivienne looked down at the flash drive in her hand.
A tiny object.
But somehow heavier than anything she had ever held.
Because inside it was the truth.
The truth about her husband.
Her family.
And the past everyone had tried to bury.
She looked at the screen.
The final words Ethan had said repeated in her mind.
“They were afraid you would discover what happened before you married me.”
Vivienne closed her fingers around the flash drive.
For the first time that night…
May you like
She was no longer the victim.
She was the person who was about to uncover everything.
