Chapter 2

Ethan stood before his father, the echoes of the gala's music a mocking counterpoint to the turmoil in his heart.

The image of Izzy with Leo, her soft words of devotion to him, played on a loop in his mind.

"So, you see, Father," Ethan said, his voice now steady, cold, "my decision about Sophia is final."

"I won't be a pawn in their game. I won't be Izzy Monroe' s meal ticket for her lover."

He took a sharp breath. "And I want them gone."

"All of them. Izzy, Leo, Chloe, Olivia, all the Vanguard women who were part of this."

William Vanderbilt Sr. listened, his expression unreadable for a moment.

Then, a muscle twitched in his jaw.

"They played you. They played me."

"Yes," Ethan agreed. "They did."

"I want all financial support for them cut off. Immediately," Ethan demanded.

"Their stipends, their access to company resources, their housing. Everything. The Vanderbilt Vanguard Initiative, for them, is over."

William nodded slowly. "Agreed."

He looked at Ethan, a new respect in his eyes. The naivete was gone, replaced by a grim resolve.

"Upon your engagement to Sophia, I will make the announcement. It will be clean. Public. They will be excised from Vanderbilt Innovations and from our lives."

His father added, a strategic glint in his eye, "We' ll need to handle their departures carefully. Contracts, NDAs. We can' t have them running to the press with fabricated stories."

"I understand," Ethan said. "But they need to face consequences."

The next few days were a blur of quiet planning with his father and forced pleasantries.

The Vanguard women, oblivious to Ethan' s discovery, continued their charade.

Izzy remained coolly polite, occasionally offering a small, calculated smile that used to make Ethan' s heart leap. Now, it just made him sick.

The confrontation he dreaded and anticipated came a week later, during a planned company retreat at the Vanderbilts' sprawling Aspen estate.

It was supposed to be a weekend of team-building exercises, strategy sessions, and, for Ethan, another opportunity to be subtly paraded.

He was on a hiking trail with a small group, including Izzy, Leo, and Olivia Chen.

Sophia was there too, invited by Ethan as his personal guest, a subtle signal he hadn't fully explained to her yet.

Leo, ever the charismatic center of attention for the Vanguard women, was laughing, telling some story, when he "tripped" near Ethan.

It happened quickly. Leo stumbled, reached out, and brushed against Ethan' s arm.

Then Leo went down, hard, with a theatrical cry of pain.

"My ankle!" he gasped, clutching it.

Ethan had barely felt the contact. He knew, with a sickening certainty, that Leo had staged the fall.

"Ethan! What did you do?" Olivia Chen was instantly at Leo' s side, glaring at Ethan.

Izzy rushed over, her face a mask of concern, kneeling beside Leo. "Leo, are you okay? What happened?"

Leo looked up, his eyes wide and tearful, a masterful performance.

"It was an accident," Leo said, his voice trembling. He glanced at Ethan. "I... I just lost my footing. Ethan tried to catch me, I think."

Subtly blaming Ethan, making Ethan look clumsy, careless, or worse, malicious.

The Vanguard women, already primed to see Leo as a victim and Ethan as the privileged oaf, bought it completely.

"You' re always so reckless, Ethan," Olivia snapped. "Can' t you watch where you' re going?"

Izzy fussed over Leo, her touch gentle, her voice soothing. "Let me see. We need to get you back to the lodge."

She shot Ethan a cold, accusatory look.

A look that said, you hurt him.

Ethan opened his mouth to defend himself, to say he' d barely touched Leo, that Leo had practically thrown himself to the ground.

But he closed it.

What was the point?

They wouldn' t believe him. Their loyalty was absolute, their judgment clouded by their infatuation with the manipulative parasite.

Izzy helped Leo to his feet, her arm around his waist, supporting him.

She didn' t spare Ethan another glance as she and Olivia guided Leo slowly back down the trail.

Sophia watched the entire exchange, her expression thoughtful, her eyes missing nothing. She moved to Ethan' s side.

"Are you alright?" she asked quietly.

Ethan just shook his head, a bitter taste in his mouth. "Never better."

He was resigned to their misunderstanding. For now.

The rest of the hike was tense.

Later that day, at the lodge, Izzy was the picture of devotion, tending to Leo who was propped up on a sofa, his ankle "bandaged," though Ethan suspected it was barely sprained.

She brought him drinks, adjusted his pillows, her attention solely on him.

She ignored Ethan completely.

It was a public display of her priorities.

Ethan watched them, a cold fury simmering beneath his calm exterior.

He remembered a time, two years ago, when his father had been displeased with Izzy.

She' d overstepped on a project, shown a streak of arrogance his father wanted to curb.

William Vanderbilt Sr. had publicly, though not cruelly, reprimanded her in a board meeting.

Then, to teach her a lesson about loyalty and hierarchy, he' d made her apologize to Ethan for some minor, almost forgotten slight.

Ethan remembered Izzy standing before him, her face pale, her eyes downcast, forced to utter words of apology.

He' d felt uncomfortable then, even a little sorry for her. He' d thought his father was being too harsh.

She' d seemed so humiliated.

Now, seeing her willingly, lovingly dote on Leo after his staged fall, her concern so genuine for him, Ethan felt a fresh wave of pain.

Her humiliation then had been forced. Her devotion now was clearly heartfelt.

The contrast was a stark, brutal confirmation of where her true affections lay.

Not with him. Never with him.