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. 1 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. 2 After a long night of reviewing documents, I calmly picked up the phone and called my secretary. "Prepare the divorce papers." My marriage to Elara had been arranged by my grandfather. He and the old Mr. Walton were friends for decades, and he’d promised that Elara would marry the heir to the Hearst fortune. The problem was, there were two Hearst sons, and my grandfather had never officially named his successor. Shawn, as the eldest, was assumed by many to be the heir apparent. The Waltons certainly thought so. But they didn't understand the Hearst way: power is earned, not inherited. While I never intended to fight my brother for control, I understood my duty. While he was living a life of excess and debauchery in the city, I was burning the midnight oil, studying abroad. While he was throwing his weight around as the firstborn son, I was learning the intricacies of corporate management. It wasn't until I returned and began my internship at the company that he finally saw me as a threat. But instead of changing his ways, he doubled down. He hired thugs to kidnap me. If it hadn't been for my grandfather's private security detail, who had been protecting me in secret, I would have been ransomed or worse. When that failed, he tried to poison my drink. I only survived because I was rushed to the hospital in time. After that, the family elders had seen enough. They forced the separation, giving him a generous settlement to be rid of him. I knew Elara and Shawn were close. I had wanted to call off the engagement, but she had come to me herself. "Caleb, your brother and I are just friends. I want to marry you," she’d said. "You've just returned to the country. My family will be your greatest asset." My grandfather was eager to see me settled, so I agreed. In the world of corporate mergers and family dynasties, affection is secondary to alliance. But there must be respect. For Elara to continue her affair with Shawn after our wedding was a blatant insult. I had no reason to save her face any longer. Before my secretary could arrive with the papers, a group of people appeared at my office door. Leading them were Elara’s parents. The moment they saw me, they rushed forward and fell to their knees. "Caleb, it's all our fault! We've raised a disrespectful, treacherous daughter!" her father cried. "We've spoiled her rotten. She's always seen Shawn as a brother, that's the only reason she keeps seeing him. We promise, it will never happen again. Please, spare the Walton family!" Behind them, the entire Walton contingent knelt in unison, their heads bowed, waiting for my judgment. The silence was broken by a shrill voice. "Let go of me! I'm telling you, Caleb Hearst is no saint!" Elara was being dragged forward by her cousins. When she saw her family kneeling, her glare intensified. "Caleb! You think bringing my family here will force me to submit to you? You're a despicable, manipulative—" Before she could finish, her father shot up and slapped her hard across the face. She stared at him, then at her mother, her eyes wide with disbelief. But her mother offered no comfort, her face a mask of cold fury. "Kneel!" she commanded. Elara started to argue, but her father clamped a hand over her mouth and shot a look at his brothers. They understood immediately, joining him to force her to her knees. "Caleb, please, she's just upset, don't listen to her nonsense..." her mother pleaded. I waved a dismissive hand. "This is a Walton family matter. Settle it at home, not in my office." Her parents were about to say more when a knock on the door interrupted them. "Mr. Hearst," my secretary said, "the divorce agreement is ready for your review." Elara struggled against her relatives' grip, the arrogant fire in her voice finally extinguished. "Caleb," she whispered, "are you really going to divorce me?" 3 I took the file from my secretary, scanned it briefly, and then tossed it onto the floor in front of her. "Elara, you want your freedom? You want your friends? Fine. You've got it." Her eyes darted over the asset division clause in the agreement, and her voice trembled. "No. I don't agree. We can't get a divorce." A cold smile touched my lips. "If you don't agree, we'll go to court. You're the party at fault. You'll walk away with nothing." I leaned back in my chair. "And by the way, embezzlement of company funds on this scale... according to the law, you'll spend the rest of your life in prison." Her face went pale, and her body went limp. "Caleb, I was wrong. I'll pay the money back immediately." She paused, tears welling in her eyes. "But... that project was only worth a billion. If Shawn doesn't land a new contract soon, he'll go bankrupt. Please, can't we just let this go? It's such a small thing to divorce over." Even now, she was still trying to protect him. My face hardened. "Elara, do you think this is about the money? You know better than anyone what he did to me! Shawn is a lazy, entitled parasite. If he can't get a contract, he deserves to fail!" When I first returned, the subsidiary I was given was struggling. I was the one who went out, day after day, begging for meetings, humbling myself for a chance. I was the one who worked alongside my team from dawn until midnight to build it up. Shawn mocked my efforts then, and when he saw my success, he tried to have me killed. My family gave him more than enough to live a stable, wealthy life. They had been more than generous. And yet Elara still saw him as a victim, using my resources to play the role of his savior. "I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking..." she sobbed. Seeing her finally admit fault, the Walton family breathed a collective sigh of relief. Her father quickly tried to smooth things over. "Caleb, she was just confused for a moment. Her heart is in the right place." "That's right, Caleb. We'll be sure to discipline her when we get home. Divorce is a serious matter," another relative added. Just then, a frail, elderly voice came from the doorway. My grandfather was there, supporting Mr. Walton. My own grandfather had always been kind to me, and out of respect for him, I finally relented. "Let this be the end of it," I said. "I don't want a repeat performance." The Waltons were visibly relieved, thanking me profusely as they led a weeping Elara away. The next morning, Elara was waiting for me outside the office with a lunch box. "Darling, I know you usually skip breakfast. I made you some chicken noodle soup to warm you up." For days, she was the perfect wife. She brought me three meals a day. She stopped going out to parties and instead sat with me quietly in the office while I worked late. The project proposal was returned, the stolen funds repaid. My secretary reported that she hadn't had any contact with Shawn. Watching her bustle around, my resolve began to soften. "You can let the housekeeper handle these things," I told her one evening. "You should go out, go shopping, relax a little." She shook her head. "I've thought it over. All that partying is meaningless. I'd rather spend my time with you, learning about the business so I can share your burdens." Seeing her genuine interest, I reinstated her position at the company without her even having to ask. She proved to be surprisingly capable, working diligently and becoming a valuable asset. Soon, whispers turned to praise throughout our social circle. Caleb and Elara, the perfect power couple. The future of Hearst Corporation looked brighter than ever.
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