CHAPTER 2 – THE TRUTH THEY BURIED
The boardroom remained silent.
Damian could hear nothing except the pounding of his own heartbeat.
"You..." he whispered.
"You knew all along."
"I did."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
Isabella looked at him as though he were asking why the sun rose each morning.
"Because I wanted to know whether you loved me..."
"...or my last name."
No one moved.
She placed a thin folder on the conference table.
Inside were hundreds of pages.
Every emergency loan.
Every acquisition.
Every debt settlement.
Every one of them carried the same signature.
Isabella Sinclair.
The room erupted into whispers.
One elderly director slowly removed his glasses.
"My God..."
"She financed everything."
Another executive added,
"When Blackwood Group was one week away from bankruptcy..."
"Miss Sinclair paid every creditor herself."
Damian's hands shook.
"I never knew."
"No," Isabella answered quietly.
"You never asked."
She walked toward the enormous windows overlooking the city.
"I believed marriage meant building a future together."
"So I allowed you to take the credit."
"I allowed your mother to believe she rescued me."
"I allowed the world to call you a self-made billionaire."
She turned back.
"But love cannot survive where gratitude never exists."
Eleanor burst into the room without knocking.
"You manipulated my son!"
Isabella smiled faintly.
"No."
"I simply stopped protecting yours."
Security guards stepped forward.
"For legal reasons," one announced, "the Blackwood family's authority over company property has ended."
Eleanor screamed.
"You can't throw me out!"
The chairman calmly replied,
"We're not."
"The creditors are."
That afternoon, luxury cars were repossessed.
Private jets were grounded.
The mansion's staff resigned one by one after learning Isabella—not Damian—had personally funded their salaries for years.
Even the chef walked away.
By sunset...
The mansion felt empty.
May you like
For the first time in decades...
The Blackwoods had no one left to command.
