He Wants An Open Marriage? Done!

"I will sue you, Richard!" Nicholas screamed, the veins in his neck bulging into thick cords. "I swear to God, you will regret this for the rest of your life!"

Richard completely tuned him out. His eyes were glued to the brightly lit screen, scanning the text. Slowly, his brow pinched into a heavy frown. Then, his eyes snapped wide. He turned his head, staring at Nicholas as if looking at a total stranger.

"Is this real?" Richard asked, his voice completely breathless, stripped of all its previous anger by sheer shock.

Nicholas didn’t answer. His chest heaved in ragged thrusts against the grip of the security guards.

"What is it?" Margaret demanded, stepping closer to the table.

Henry’s face darkened with a deep frown. "Say something, Richard," he urged, his voice tight. "Did he send the video to Christian? Is that what’s on there?"

Roxanne kept her eyes locked on Richard. The sudden paleness of his face told her everything she needed to know. Whatever was on that screen had completely rattled him, and it was clearly something far worse than a leaked video.

"Give me my phone, Richard!" Nicholas roared, throwing his entire weight forward to break through the human wall of the two guards pinning him.

Richard looked at his brother, slowly shaking his head in absolute disgust. He turned toward his parents, letting out a heavy sigh. "Honestly, it would have been a relief if all he did was send that video to Christian. God, that would have been a thousand times better than this."

"Are you saying you found something worse?" Margaret asked, her voice faltering as she hurried around the table.

Richard looked at his mother and nodded grimly. "Yes, Mother. Much worse."

Margaret instinctively clutched her chest, her fingers bunching the fabric of her blouse as she closed the distance.

The entire boardroom sat in dead, suffocating silence, every single eye trained on Richard as he stared down at the screen one more time, as if desperate to prove his own eyes wrong.

"What is it, dear? Tell me," Margaret whispered, stopping right beside him.

Richard looked up at her, a profound exhaustion settling deep into the lines of his face. "Nicholas has been exchanging emails with Riggs."

Margaret’s hand flew to her mouth, cutting off a sharp gasp. A collective shockwave rippled through the room, the board members trading horrified glances. Henry’s posture went entirely rigid.

"Riggs?" Pamela asked, her voice cracking as she leaned over the table. "As in Thomas Riggs? Our direct competitor?"

Richard scrolled further down the screen, his thumb moving mechanically. "Nicholas has been actively collaborating with the Riggs Group. He’s already passed their background checks, and he’s just one signature away from completing his onboarding."

He looked up, his voice dripping with bitter venom. "They’ve been planning to sabotage Vance Enterprises from the inside. In exchange, Riggs promised to name Nicholas their new CEO."

Margaret fiercely shook her head. "Let me see that. Give it to me!" she ordered sharply, snatching the device right out of Richard’s hand.

Her eyes darted frantically across the screen, her chest rising and falling as she absorbed the treason. "It’s real," she breathed, her voice dropping into a horrified whisper.

She lifted her head, her features contorting into an ugly scowl of betrayal as she stared at her son. "You’re moving to Riggs? You are actively destroying your own family?" Her voice shook, still desperate for him to offer some kind of excuse, any lie to make it a mistake.

"How could you do something like this, Nick?" Pamela asked, her eyes brimming with deep disappointment.

Nicholas’s jaw went stone-hard. He looked at the shattered faces of his family, his chest heaving under the weight of the exposure.

For a fraction of a second, Roxanne caught a flicker of regret bleeding through his eyes, but it vanished as quickly as it came. His expression hardened into a cold, defiant mask, and he let out a bitter scoff.

"Fine. Yes, I did it. I’ve been talking to Riggs for months," Nicholas confessed, his voice entirely stripped of any warmth or remorse.

A loud uproar of whispers broke out among the board members, dozens of heads shaking in absolute disapproval.

"And the video? Was that you too?" Richard asked, frowning.

"Yes," Nicholas added, a malicious edge creeping into his tone. "I’m the one who recorded that video, and I gave it to Christian. He was supposed to make my transition easier by tanking your credibility. And hell, he did a spectacular job."

"Why?" Pamela whispered, a single tear spilling over her lashes. "Why would you go this far?"

Nicholas whipped his head toward her, his scowl deepening. "Are you seriously still asking why? The real question is why the hell not? I had to do something to prove to this arrogant family that being the firstborn shouldn’t be the automatic ticket to the presidency. Richard is completely unworthy of that chair! If all of you want to stay blind to his incompetence, then I’d rather take my talents to a competitor who actually knows how to reward them."

Richard let out a humorless scoff. He pressed the palm of his hand against his forehead, looking down at the table. "What a pathetic fool."

"You think I’m the fool? Well, take a look around, Richie. Who’s actually winning right now?" Nicholas mocked, a smirk spreading across his lips. "While your precious Vance stocks are plummeting by the hour, guess whose profile is rising?"

Nobody spoke. The room just stared at him, the heavy silence thick with the realization that Nicholas had completely lost his mind.

Nicholas blinked, looking at each of their horrified faces, entirely fueled by his own delusion. "History doesn’t remember who played fair. It remembers who won. I will do whatever it takes to completely cripple Vance Enterprises, even if it means I have to play a little dirty to get it done."

Margaret’s chest heaved with a sudden surge of adrenaline. Before anyone could stop her, she stormed across the room, her heels clicking sharply against the floor. She swung her hand back and slapped Nicholas across the face so hard the crack echoed like a gunshot. His head snapped to the side.

"How dare you!" she screamed, her eyes blazing with a terrifying, maternal fury.

At the end of the table, Henry slowly stood up, his face pale as death. "You are an absolute disgrace."

Nicholas rubbed his reddening cheek, a sick, twisted smile playing on his lips as he looked at his father. "That’s the irony of this whole thing, Father. Richard is the one whose face is plastered all over the trashy tabloids right now, yet I’m the disgrace?" He shook his head, laughing softly.

"He is on the news because you put him there!" Henry shot back, his voice booming across the room for the very first time all afternoon. His lower jaw trembled violently, his hands shaking as he fought to keep his rage from tearing him apart. "I should disown you right now."

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