Chapter 5 - Victoria’s Goodbye
Victoria Reynolds left Ethan three months later.
Their marriage had already been fragile, but Oliver’s arrival made its emptiness impossible to ignore.
One evening, Victoria stood in the penthouse living room with a suitcase beside her.
“You love her,” she said.
Ethan looked up from the papers spread across his desk.
“I do not know if I deserve to call it love.”
“That was not an answer.”
He closed the folder.
“Yes,” he said. “I do.”
Victoria nodded slowly.
“And she does not love you anymore.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you still married to me?”
Ethan had no answer.
Victoria looked tired, not angry.
Their marriage had been a transaction built from family expectations and shared convenience. She had wanted security. He had wanted access to the Reynolds network.
Neither had received a life.
“I do not want to be punished for a love story I was never part of,” she said.
“You are not being punished.”
“I am living with a man who stares at a photograph of his son every night and acts like guilt is devotion.”
Ethan looked down.
She was right.
Victoria walked toward the door.
“I hope you become a good father,” she said. “But do not confuse that with earning Clare back.”
Then she left.
Ethan did not stop her.
For the first time, he began making decisions that cost him personally.
He finalized the divorce without fighting over property.
He stepped back from the Reynolds partnership.
The merger remained intact, but his relationship with the Reynolds family collapsed.
Board members questioned his judgment.
Investors worried about instability.
May you like
Ethan accepted it.
Because he had finally begun to understand that consequences were not unfair simply because they arrived late.
