The Final Punishment
Marco sank to his knees. The man who had called me trash hours ago now wept in front of hundreds.
“Clara! Forgive me! I didn’t mean it! I was drunk when I burned your dress! I love you, Clara! We’re family!”
Two bodyguards stepped forward, halting his reach for my gown.
“Don’t touch my dress, Marco. It might get dirty—just like you said earlier,” I replied coldly. I turned to Mr. Sebastian.
“Draft his termination papers. Revoke his promotion. Take back the company car. Blacklist him from every corporation in Asia. And audit his personal assets—I want everything he built using my money reclaimed.”
“Yes, Madame Chairwoman,” Mr. Sebastian confirmed.
“C-Clara! Please! I’ll have nowhere to go! I’ll be ruined!” Marco screamed as they forced him to stand.
“You told me I don’t belong in your world anymore,” I said. “You were right. Because your world is small—full of arrogance and fake power. My world is the one you work in.”

I turned my back.
“Throw that trash out. He’s ruining the atmosphere of my party,” I commanded.
Marco’s desperate cries echoed through the ballroom as he was dragged out. The night he had imagined as the pinnacle of his success had become the abyss of his downfall.
And me?
I lifted my champagne, savoring the freedom I had claimed from a worthless man, and let the applause wash over me.
