Chapter 3 Wrongly Accused

Ethans pov-

My father's hand across my face cracked in the Blackvale boardroom, a rebuke as stinging as it was painful. "You careless fool!" Benjamin Blackvale roared, his voice slammed the murmurs of the board members sitting around the expensive polished mahogany table into silence. "You've ruined the reputation of our empire with your foolishness!"

I gritted my teeth, the sting of the slap roasting from my cheek as I stood straight in my custom made navy suit. The board turned its head in shame; their embarrassment was obvious, but I felt their judgment carve through me. The viral footage of me and Lilian Sinclair - Isabella's stepsister - had blown up everywhere, my betrayal fast tracked to global notoriety. Blackvale Enterprises, my billion dollar tech empire, was currently a laughing stock and my father's wrath was just the beginning.

"I don't know how it leaked," I said, my voice low, controlled, though a kind of rage simmered under it. "Somebody's trying to shake me down, Father. I'm being set up." Lies had a bitter taste to me but I had long since perfected the art of deceit. And trust was a coin in the Blackvale family, and had learned to spend it wisely. The fact was, I had no clue who'd put that surveillance clip online, but my brain had already honed in on the most obvious suspect: Isabella Hartman.

She'd seen the footage. I remembered the venom in her voice when she had faced me, when had she thrown my affair with Lilian into my face. Isabella, the one I'd groomed into my ideal, defenseless future wife, had dared to revert back to being the Ashcroft heiress, my family's most hated enemy. The newsreels this morning - of her triumphant return as the trillion dollar queen of the Ashcroft empire - had almost given me a heart attack. She'd got into my head enough to make me and now she'd gone to the heart of my empire with that video. It had to be her.

My plans, after all, had not yet changed. I wanted and required Isabella's riches, her realm, to affirm my historical dream as the richest man who ever lived. It was marrying her that mattered, and no scandal would get in the way of that. I only had to deal with it in a cooler way and not emotionally. I pushed away from the table, ignoring my father's glare and got into my Jeep and exited to Isabella's penthouse in one of the more affluent neighborhoods of San Francisco.

She unlocked the door, her emerald eyes frigid, her chestnut hair tumbling in waves. The sleek black dress she wore was confidence, not the battered girl I'd been looking down on. "Ethan," she said, with contempt in her voice. "What do you want?"

"You fucking leaked the video," I accused as I entered without being invited in. I was twice her height, but she did not flinch. "You aimed to humiliate me, to spit Blackvale in the dirt."

Isabella laughed, a dry, reckless cackle that prickled my skin with cold. "You believe I would spend time doing that? I didn't leak your sex tape, Ethan. But I'm not crying about it." Her guiltless certainty was unnerving. I'd fed my ego on her vulnerability, the way she'd clung to me after being shot! But this Isabella - fierce, unyielding - scared me in a way I couldn't admit.

"I'm supposed to take your word for this?" I snapped, catching up with her. "You were the only one who got access to that footage."

She moved closer and didn't flinch, looking me in my eyes. "I'm done being your pawn." Her words hurt, but I didn't have a chance to reply as the door behind me swung open.

Lilian burst in, her platinum blonde hair shining brightly, her frosty blue eyes ablaze with rage. In silence she crossed the room, and gave Isabella a sounding slap on the cheek.

"You vindictive bitch!" Lilian spat, her icy blue eyes glowing. "You leaked that video to destroy me, to make sure my image was destroyed! You were sick with jealousy that Ethan wanted me!" Her platinum blond hair cascaded while she leaned forward, poison oozing from each syllable.

I was rooted to the spot, my thoughts in motion. Lilian's outburst was a liability, but I couldn't step in - not yet. Isabella placed her hand to her face, eyes narrowing, but her expression unruffled.

Before she could reply, the door was flung open once more, and in stormed Maggie, her auburn bob bouncing along with her rageful advance. Isabella's best friend, the disgraced journalist turned influencer, didn't waste a second. "You shameless slut! Shut up Lillian!" Maggie said as she got between her and Isabella. "You fucked your stepsister's fiancé and you're playing the victim? Get out!"

Lilian blushed red, her eyes flicking toward me, waiting. She wanted me to protect her, to ally myself with her in this awful stuff. But I remained silent, my jaw clenched. Lilian was a pawn, not an ally, and I wasn't going to jeopardize my plan for her hissy fit. Horror flashed in her eyes and with that, she stormed out and banged the door behind her.

Isabella looked at me coldly. "Get out, Ethan. I'm done with you." Her voice was conclusive, a queen dismissing a pawn. Maggie was next to her with an ugly look, challenging me to object. I tried to press, to pressure her into admitting she'd leaked the video, but the steely gleam in her eyes told me I'd lost her. For now.

I stomped out in my shiny shoes without saying anything. Outside, San Francisco's craziness was almost an extension of my own. The video was a disaster, a nuke to Blackvale's stock and my reputation.

I couldn't let it stand. The moment I got back in the car, I called my PR team, my tone verging on abrasive. "Pull that video off the internet. Now. Once it's published, push the narrative that it's AI-generated, deepfake nonsense. Pay whoever you need to." I had friends in deep places - tech companies, media outlets, hell, even some hackers. By nightfall, the video would be scrubbed, the story relegated to claims of digital manipulation.

Isabella's pov-

The sting of Lilian's slap still burned my cheek as I hovered in my penthouse, the passionate defense Maggie had made for me still lingering in the air. The words had been a salve to my rage, her calling Lilian a slut but it was Ethan's silence that had hurt more. He never defended Lilian, never apologized, just stood there with his cold eyes intent on which way he was going to go. Bella Sinclair was gone. Isabella Hartman, Ashcroft's heiress, was left holding the bag.

Maggie stared at me, her eyes keen with worry. "You okay, Bella?" she said again, more gently this time. I said, yes - but my chest was hurt with the weight of betrayal. This was just one fight, and I was armed with my father's empire and a resolve of my own.

I collapsed onto the couch, the skyline of San Francisco sparkled, and reminded me of the power that I now have. The video of Ethan and Lilian had caused a commotion in Blackvale, but I hadn't leaked it. Someone else had, and why they were doing it remained a mystery I couldn't yet fathom.

As we drove to Maggie's, she scrolled through her phone while sitting next to me. "The internet's loving this," she said, smirking. "Ethan's team is in a meltdown, but the harm has been done."

"Let them run around," I replied without letting my voice wilt. "I do not care anymore about his empire." I was focused on Ashcroft now, trying to restore what my father had left to rot. The news around my return was making headlines, and the boardroom had received me back with ovations, and some envy. I didn't care. I was here to lead, not to cater.

I felt a vibration in my pocket, and saw my phone light up with an unknown number. I hesitated, then answered. "Isabella Hartman," I had said, my voice sharp.

"Miss Hartman," came the soft voice, one unfamiliar. "This is E. Black. I want to buy a billion dollars of stock in the Ashcroft Corporation. I would like to discuss the terms."

I sat there frozen, clutching the phone more tightly. A billion dollars? The sheer audacity of the offer stunned the tech world, a move that could shift the balance of power among Silicon Valley's largest companies. Ashcroft was a giant, but an individual's spending on that scale was not even imaginable.

"That's a big deal, Mr. Black," I said, trying to keep my voice even. "I'm curious," I said, "what motivates your interest?"

"I guess you could say I see a future for Ashcroft," he answered, his voice steady and filled with purpose. "I would rather negotiate in person. Would you by chance be available for a meeting at the next tech summit?"

My mind raced. The tech summit was but days ahead, a gathering of industry elites at which I would be representing Ashcroft for the first time as the estate's heiress. But who was this E. Black? The name nagged at me, too similar to Ethan Blackvale to be a coincidence. Was this some other one of Ethan's games, a bid to worm back into my world after the scandal? Or was it still another person altogether?

"I'll think about it," I replied, coldly. "Give me the documents and I'll take a look at it." I hung up, my heart racing. Maggie arched one eyebrow, knowing that something was wrong. "Who was that?" she asked.

"Some guy named E. Black," I said, looking at the phone. "They want to purchase a billion-dollar share in Ashcroft."

Maggie whistled. "That's bold. Do you think it's Ethan making the moves?"

I shook my head, with doubt curling in my stomach. I was surprised at how much this stranger was putting in. But also more baffled as there was such a similarity between the name E. Black and 'Ethan Blackvale'.