Chapter 1The Walton Shutdown

My older brother, Shawn, had tried to ruin me time and again in his bid to take over the family business, and for his treachery, he’d been cast out. Yet here was my own wife, Elara, secretly handing him a billion-dollar project proposal that belonged to me.

Shawn flaunted it on his social media, his smile dripping with arrogance. The caption read: "Even when I have nothing, some people will still willingly hand me the world on a silver platter."

Elara’s comment appeared almost immediately, bold and shameless: "If you asked for the moon and the stars, I’d find a way to get them for you."

My jaw tightened. I called her. "You have thirty minutes to get that project back."

Her voice was a sigh of exasperation. "Caleb, must you be so petty? It's only a billion dollars."

I hung up, ignoring her protests.

Thirty minutes later, my secretary informed me that not only had Elara failed to retrieve the proposal, but she had also siphoned ten billion dollars in assets from the company.

Fine. If she wanted to play this game, I was done holding back.

I hit the enter key on my keyboard. In an instant, every single company under the Walton family name was frozen solid.

* * *

When the Walton family fortune started evaporating at a rate of billions per minute, Elara Walton finally remembered I existed.

She burst into my office, reeking of alcohol, stumbling slightly in her heels. "Caleb Hearst, what is the meaning of this?" she demanded. "There's a limit to your childish tantrums! Do you have any idea how much damage you've done to my family's assets?"

I didn't even grant her a glance, instead taking a slow, deliberate sip of my tea. "I told you. You had thirty minutes."

My calm composure only seemed to fuel her rage. She lunged forward and grabbed my tie. "Shawn is your brother! If you can't show him the respect he deserves as your elder, then I'll have to do it for you to protect this family's reputation!"

She leaned in, her voice a furious whisper. "Ever since you came back from your studies abroad, you've backed him into a corner, isolated him completely! Are you really going to stand by and watch your own flesh and blood starve on the streets?"

She spoke with such righteous indignation, as if I were the villain in this story.

My eyes turned to ice. With a flick of my wrist, I pushed her away. I picked up a file my secretary had prepared and tossed it onto the desk in front of her. "Forging the client's name on a billion-dollar proposal? Transferring ten billion in company assets on a whim? Is this how you manage a corporation?" I asked, my voice dangerously low. "Hearst Corporation has no need for an employee like you. And we certainly have no interest in partnering with a family that operates this way."

I leaned forward. "I don't care what history you have with Shawn Hearst. As long as you are a part of this company, as long as you bear the Hearst name by marriage, you will remember your place."

She glanced at the scattered documents with a dismissive shrug. "Caleb, don't think you're so special just because you have a fancy foreign degree. You'll never understand the nuances of how things work here, the importance of relationships." She sneered. "Have you forgotten what family loyalty even means? Or did they not teach you that in your fancy overseas schools?"

When I looked up, my expression was hard as stone. "Loyalty is a two-way street. A younger brother shows respect when the older brother shows he's worthy of it. Shawn tried to have me kidnapped. He tried to poison me. Is that what you call brotherly love?"

My voice was rising, laced with cold fury. "He was kicked out of this family by the unanimous decision of our elders. He brought it on himself. And if you regret marrying me so much, this engagement can be terminated at any time!"

Sensing the steel in my voice, Elara’s tone softened. "Caleb, I don't want to end our engagement. I truly don't. I just… I saw how desperate he was, and I felt sorry for him." She took a step closer. "Besides, what's a few billion to you? It's nothing. But he has nothing left. We can't let him live in poverty for the rest of his life, can we?"

A bitter laugh escaped my lips. "Poverty? When he was disowned, the family gave him three subsidiary companies and two waterfront mansions. That's more than enough to keep him comfortable in the city's elite circles. There are thousands of people in this city with less than him. Why don't you go feel sorry for them? Why don't you hand each of them a billion dollars out of the goodness of your heart?"

Cornered, she changed the subject. "He's still been my friend for years. Just because I'm married to you, does that mean I'm not allowed to have my own friends?"

I calmly unlocked my phone. "What kind of 'friend' requires your company late at night?"

I turned the screen toward her. It displayed a photo of her and Shawn on a yacht, glasses clinking, their bodies pressed close in the moonlight.

Before she could answer, I swiped. "What kind of 'friends' book one hotel room on vacation?"

Photo after photo, a timeline of their illicit moments played out before her. The color drained from her face.

"Is that your definition of friendship, Elara? Or are you this intimate with all your male friends?"

Her face flushed a deep crimson. She finally found her voice, spitting the words with venom. "You're disgusting! You had me followed!" She straightened up, a strange calm settling over her, a sly smile touching her lips. "You think you've won, Caleb? The game isn't over yet."

She leaned in conspiratorially. "You can't end this engagement without my consent. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go comfort Shawn. You can figure out what to do next."

She turned and sashayed toward the door. Just as her hand touched the knob, I spoke.

"Elara," I said, my voice quiet but clear. "Walk out that door, and there will be no coming back for the Walton family. Don't forget why you came here in the first place."

She froze, her back to me. Then she turned, her eyes flashing. "I am not a woman to be trifled with, Caleb Hearst. You'll regret this."

She wrenched the door open and disappeared, leaving only the echo of her defiance.