RICHARD STERLING'S POV
Richard Sterling notices money that doesn't add up.
Flowers. Restaurant reservations. Gifts wrapped in expensive paper but delivered to addresses that have nothing to do with his son's business. It takes him exactly thirty seconds to figure out what's happening. Jackson is trying to win back his ex-wife.
Richard sits behind his mahogany desk in his office on the forty-second floor and stares at the credit card statements like they're betraying him. Because they are. His son is losing focus. His son is becoming weak.
He picks up the phone and calls Jackson.
"My office. Now."
Jackson arrives ten minutes later looking nervous. He should be nervous. Richard taught him that looking nervous is acceptable only when you're about to do something that matters.
"Tell me about Sophie Chen," Richard says without preamble.
Jackson's face goes pale. He sits down without being invited and that alone tells Richard everything he needs to know. His son is spiraling.
"She's getting married," Richard continues. "To Ethan Cole. The man who's been dismantling our company for the last decade. And you're spending money trying to win her back. Why?"
Jackson doesn't answer. He just stares at his hands like they belong to someone else.
Richard leans back in his chair. He's not angry. Anger is an emotion. Richard is beyond emotions. He only deals in facts and strategy and understanding what people want badly enough to destroy themselves for it.
"Get out," Richard says.
Jackson leaves without arguing. Richard sits alone in his office and starts thinking about Sophie Chen in a completely different way.
If Jackson manages to win her back, they lose the situation entirely. Sophie becomes Jackson's obsession and Ethan Cole becomes untouchable because he's protecting his relationship. That's not useful.
But if Sophie stays with Ethan while the world watches them, while people whisper about their engagement, while doubt grows in both their minds like poison in water, then Sophie becomes something far more valuable than a reconciliation.
Sophie becomes leverage.
Richard picks up his phone and makes calls.
First call is to Marcus, who owns half the media outlets in Manhattan. They go back thirty years. Marcus owes him more favors than he could count in one lifetime.
"I need a story leaked," Richard says. "Something that will make people question an engagement."
Marcus doesn't ask why. He already knows that information is currency and Richard is the richest man in Manhattan when it comes to currency.
Second call is to his lawyer, David, who knows where all the bodies are buried because Richard buried most of them.
"I need ammunition," Richard says. "Everything you can find about Ethan Cole's early business practices. Everything that's ethically questionable but not technically illegal."
David already has a file. He always has a file. Richard pays him to have files.
Third call is to Victoria, his daughter-in-law.
She answers on the first ring. She's always ready for his calls because she understands how power works.
"Your husband is falling apart," Richard says. "He's obsessed with his ex-wife."
"I know," Victoria says calmly. "I've been monitoring his spending."
"Good. When this story breaks, I want you to distance yourself from Jackson. I want you to look like a woman who didn't know what her husband was planning. I want you to look innocent."
"I'm always innocent," Victoria says. "That's why we work together."
Richard hangs up and sits back in his chair.
He's building a narrative. A story that will be so believable that people won't question it. A story that will make Sophie look like a gold digger who switched billionaires for a higher price. A story that will paint Ethan Cole as a predator who uses romance as a weapon in his business wars.
The story will contain just enough truth to feel real. That's the genius of it. Ethan Cole did use aggressive tactics in his early business days. He did target companies that were weaker than his own. He did destroy people's lives while building his empire.
All of that is true. Richard will just add one lie on top of it. One lie that says Ethan targeted Sophie specifically because she was Jackson's ex-wife. One lie that says this entire engagement is a calculated move in a business war.
One lie that could destroy everything Ethan has built.
But more importantly, one lie that could make Sophie doubt Ethan just enough to create cracks in their relationship. And cracks can grow. Cracks can split things wide open if you apply the right pressure.
Richard stands up and walks to the window. Manhattan sprawls below him like a chess board. He's been playing this game for forty years. He's never lost a major battle. He's never let anyone take what belonged to him without consequence.
Ethan Cole took his business. Ethan Cole is taking his son's mental state. Ethan Cole has the audacity to be winning.
That changes today.
Richard walks back to his desk and picks up the phone. He dials a number he hasn't called in two years. The journalist who broke the story about the pension fund fraud that made Richard an additional fifty million dollars. The journalist who understands that information is a weapon and sometimes you have to aim it at innocent people to hit your real target.
"David," Richard says when the journalist picks up. "It's Richard Sterling."
There's a pause. Then excitement.
"Richard, it's been too long. What do you need?"
Richard settles back into his chair. His voice is calm. Methodical. Precise.
"I have a story," Richard says. "A story about corruption masquerading as romance. A story about a man who uses women like tools. A story about Ethan Cole."
David's breathing changes. He's already imagining the headlines. Already imagining the career advancement this could bring him.
"Tell me," David says.
Richard begins to speak. He tells David about Ethan's aggressive early business tactics. He tells him about the real estate deals that were ethically questionable. He tells him about how Ethan built his fortune by destroying other people's lives.
Then he adds the lie.
"And now he's doing it again," Richard says quietly. "He targeted Sophie Chen specifically because she was Jackson Sterling's ex-wife. He pursued her. He got her engaged to him. And all of it is part of a calculated strategy to infiltrate my family's business and finish what he started."
David is writing everything down. Richard can hear the pen moving across paper.
"This is huge," David says. "I can run this in three days."
"No," Richard says. "You run this tomorrow. Before the engagement becomes more solidified. Before people rally around them. You run this and you make sure everyone in this city knows that Ethan Cole is a predator who uses love as a weapon."
"How do you want me to frame it?" David asks.
Richard smiles. He smiles because he's about to destroy two people's lives and he doesn't feel even a flicker of guilt.
"Frame it as a warning," Richard says. "Frame it as someone who cares about what's right trying to expose the truth. Frame it so that people believe you because you'll make it sound like you don't want to write the story but you have to."
"Perfect," David says. "And Sophie Chen? What should I say about her?"
Richard's smile becomes something colder.
"Say she's a victim," Richard says. "Say she's a woman who was already broken by her first marriage to Jackson Sterling and now she's being manipulated by another man who sees her as a tool. Make people pity her. Make them question whether she understands what Ethan is really doing with her."
"This will destroy them," David says. It's not a question.
"That's the point," Richard replies.
Richard hangs up the phone and looks out at Manhattan again.
Ethan Cole has been attacking the Sterling family for a decade. He's taken their business. He's humiliated them in front of their peers. He's made Richard Sterling look like a man who's losing his grip on his own empire.
Now it's Richard's turn.
And Richard Sterling has never fought a war he didn't win.
The phone on David's desk rings the next morning and the journalist answers without knowing that his next call will change everything.
Richard Sterling's words are already spreading through the city like poison in the bloodstream.