He Wants An Open Marriage? Done!

"Sit down, Margaret," Henry said, his quiet baritone cutting through the tension.

"No! I will walk away from this table every single time she enters a room!" Margaret spat, her chest heaving as she glared at Roxanne. "I do not want her here. When will any of you understand that?"

Roxanne forced herself to look directly at the older woman, keeping her posture stiff and her gaze steady. The sheer weight of Margaret’s hatred was suffocating, but she refused to break under the pressure.

"Sit down," Henry repeated, his tone firmer this time. "Walking away won’t solve the crisis at hand, and letting your emotions dictate your actions isn’t the answer. We have a corporate emergency, Margaret. We stabilize the ship before we start assigning blame. You know this."

"Exactly, Mother," Richard added smoothly, his voice in an icy register. "You can make your point without the hysterics. Sit down, and you can air your grievances properly."

Margaret’s gaze darted between Richard and Henry, her jaw working furiously. She locked eyes with Roxanne one last time, letting out a harsh, defeated breath as she sank back into her leather chair. She hadn’t left, but the air around her practically vibrated with rage.

Richard pulled out the mahogany chair directly beside his own, guiding Roxanne into it.

"Our stock has already begun to plummet," one of the lead investors announced, his voice tight with rising panic as he tapped frantically on his tablet. "We need an aggressive damage-control strategy immediately, otherwise, this hemorrhaging will get worse by the hour."

"This scandal is toxic for market confidence," another board member chimed in, his face grim as he stared at his phone. "Frankly, if there isn’t a definitive plan presented in the next ten minutes, I intend to pull my capital with immediate effect."

Margaret leaned forward, slamming her palms lightly on the table. "Are we truly prepared to alienate our investors and global partners just to shield her?"

Roxanne could feel dozens of eyes settling on her.

"I don’t think Richard fully grasps the gravity of what’s happening here," Nicholas scoffed from across the table. "Richard, if you absolutely insisted on having this little arrangement with her, you have enough international connections to place her at another firm completely out of our orbit."

"And let our competitors have an executive with her exact talent?" Richard shot back, his eyes narrowing. "Absolutely not."

"With all due respect, Mr. Vance," the company’s chief legal counsel interjected, adjusting his glasses, "standard crisis management dictates that you distance yourself from the center of the scandal right now. Instead, you’re making our job impossible. Look at the data. Key stakeholders are already pulling out, and half the people at this table are considering the same."

Roxanne kept her lips pressed together, her hands folded neatly on top of the table. Beneath the dark wood, out of sight of the board, Richard’s large hand slid onto her thigh. He gave her a gentle, grounding squeeze, a warm reassurance that pulled her back from the edge of panic.

"Why is everyone talking as if they don’t know how Richard operates?" Pamela’s voice suddenly sliced through the room. She looked around the table, her expression a perfect mask of sweet, logical concern. "We all know Richard makes calculated choices for the good of Vance Enterprises. We’ve heard Roxanne’s track record. Whether we like her or not is irrelevant. We need to contain the damage first."

Roxanne’s jaw hardened, a bitter taste rising in her throat. It took every ounce of her corporate restraint not to roll her eyes at the sickening display. Quit the act, Pamela. You literally set the house on fire, and now you’re trying to play the firefighter.

"I agree with Pamela," Henry nodded slowly. "We should give Richard the floor to speak."

"Unless his first words are that he is terminating her contract, I don’t want to hear a single word!" Margaret retorted bitterly. "I honestly can’t comprehend how Roxanne even had the audacity to show up today, considering she received the formal suspension directive from HR this morning."

A heavy, awkward silence fell over the room. A dozen pairs of eyes darted between Margaret and Roxanne, waiting for the explosion.

Roxanne remained completely motionless. She stared at Margaret, a wave of profound disappointment washing over her. How could a woman who prided herself on being the brilliant matriarch of a dynasty be so utterly blind to the real viper sitting right across from her?

"We’re discussing billions in shareholder value while you’re treating this like a romance novel," Nicholas said, his voice dripping with condescension. "Why destroy the empire we’ve spent decades building for just another skirt? I would—"

Richard abruptly raised a single hand, cutting Nicholas off mid-sentence. The gesture was silent, but it carried the weight of a physical blow. When Richard spoke, his voice was terrifyingly quiet, though his eyes blazed with anger.

"You are all free to express your concerns," Richard said, each word deliberate and sharp. "But no one in this room is permitted to speak about Roxanne in a demeaning manner. She is with me. The exact same deference and respect you accord my position will be extended to her."

He locked his gaze onto Nicholas, his jaw tight. "You don’t have to respect Roxanne because you like her. You have to respect her because she outranks half the people at this table."

Roxanne swallowed hard, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird.

Nicholas scoffed, leaning back and crossing his arms. "What a joke," he muttered under his breath.

A low murmur of disapproval rippled through the investors.

Roxanne fought the urge to defend herself as she listened.

"You should apologize, Nick," Pamela snapped, her face twisting into an expression of deep annoyance, playing her part to perfection.

Before Nicholas could answer, Margaret intervened, her voice trembling with indignation. "I cannot believe you are standing up to defend her, Richard. She has destroyed the perception that merit matters in this company. "

Richard shook his head slowly, looking directly at his mother. The trap was set.

"No, Mother. Roxanne didn’t cause a single thing," he declared, his voice echoing off the high ceiling. "Someone intentionally recorded that private video. Someone deliberately leaked it to the press. That person is solely responsible for our plummeting stock and our panicking investors."

Richard leaned forward, his eyes boring into Margaret’s. "Knowing your obsession with security, Mother, your very first question should have been how this breach happened. So tell me. Why aren’t you demanding to know who did it? Or do you already know exactly who leaked it, and you’re covering their tracks?"

The air was instantly sucked out of the room.

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