Divorced at the Banquet, Ascended by the System

The video started playing before Frank Forbes could lock his phone. “to our future,” a man’s voice said, young and bright, ringing with champagne confidence.

Glasses clinked. Laughter followed. Frank froze in the doorway of the dining room, one hand still gripping the edge of the table he’d set an hour ago.

Candles had burned down unevenly, wax pooling like pale scars. The steak he’d cooked was cold now, untouched, a thin layer of oil congealing on the surface.

On the phone screen, his wife leaned in close to another man. Evelyn Forbes smiled. Not the polite, public smile she used on investors. Not the tired smile she gave Frank lately. This one was soft. Intimate. Earned.

Someone off-camera shouted, “Say it again, CEO Evelyn!”

Evelyn lifted her glass, eyes shining. “To freedom,” she said.

The man beside her, Ryan, Frank realized distantly, laughed and wrapped an arm around her waist. “And to finally not hiding.”

The room around Frank seemed to tilt. “Daddy?”

Frank didn’t answer. His daughter’s voice came from behind him, small and uncertain, but the sound barely reached his ears.

All he could hear was the blood rushing, pounding, louder than the cheers coming through the phone speaker. “To us,” Ryan said.

Evelyn leaned in and kissed him. The phone slipped from Frank’s fingers and hit the floor. The screen didn’t crack. The video kept playing.

Frank stared at it, breathing slow, controlled, too controlled. For three years, he’d learned how to swallow everything. Swallow exhaustion. Swallow resentment.

Swallow the quiet shame of explaining to strangers that yes, he used to be an executive, and yes, now he packed lunches and attended parent-teacher meetings.

It was temporary, Evelyn had said. It was necessary, she’d said. We’re a team, she’d promised. Frank bent down and picked up the phone. He watched the kiss again. And again.

Then he turned the sound off. “Daddy?” his daughter asked again, closer now. “Mommy said she’d be home early.”

Frank crouched and met her eyes. “Go to your room, Lena.”

“But”

“Please.”

Something in his voice made her nod. She padded away, glancing back once. When her door closed, Frank straightened.

He looked at the candles. The plates. The celebration he’d planned for Evelyn’s IPO night. Slowly, deliberately, he picked up the plate in front of her chair.

He dropped it. It shattered against the floor, porcelain exploding outward. Frank stepped over the pieces, grabbed his coat, and walked out.

The banquet hall was glowing like a jewel box, gold lights, crystal chandeliers, champagne flowing like water. A massive banner hung behind the stage.

FORBES TECH — IPO LAUNCH CELEBRATION

Frank stopped at the entrance. A security guard raised a hand. “Sir, this is a private event.”

Frank met his eyes. “I’m the husband of the CEO.”

The guard hesitated. Someone nearby whispered. Before anyone could stop him, Frank walked in.

The noise hit him all at once, music, laughter, applause. Onstage, Evelyn stood with a microphone, radiant in a black dress Frank had helped her choose weeks ago.

“…none of this would’ve been possible without the incredible team behind me,” she was saying.

Frank kept walking. Ryan stood near the stage, laughing with investors, a glass in his hand. Frank stopped in front of him. Ryan looked up, startled. “Oh—uh—Frank, right?”

Frank didn’t answer. Ryan frowned. “You shouldn’t be here. Evelyn’s in the middle of”

Frank grabbed Ryan by the collar and slammed him onto the nearest table. Glasses crashed. People screamed. “What the hell !” Ryan shouted, scrambling.

Frank hauled him back up and punched him. Once. Ryan went down. The room fell into stunned silence. “Frank!” Evelyn’s voice cut through the chaos. “What are you doing?!”

Frank turned. She stared at him from the stage, eyes wide, not with guilt, but with panic. With calculation.

“This,” Frank said, voice calm, terrifyingly so, “is what you’re celebrating?”

Murmurs rippled through the crowd. Evelyn stepped down, forcing a smile that cracked at the edges. “Everyone, please, this is a misunderstanding.”

“A misunderstanding?” Frank laughed softly. “You toasted to freedom. To not hiding.”

Ryan groaned on the floor. “Eve, tell him”

Frank kicked the glass from Ryan’s hand. It shattered inches from his face. “Don’t speak,” Frank said.

Evelyn’s face hardened. “You’re embarrassing yourself.”

That did it. Frank stepped closer, lowering his voice. “I quit my job for you.”

“Frank”

“I raised our child while you built this company.”

People leaned in. Phones were already out. “I took meetings for you. Ran numbers for you. Connected you to investors you couldn’t reach.”

Evelyn shook her head. “That’s not how this works.”

“Oh?” Frank said. “Then explain why half your early strategies came from my notebooks.”

A beat. Ryan looked up, confused. “What is he talking about?”

Evelyn’s silence stretched too long. Frank straightened and spoke loudly. “I want a divorce.”

Gasps erupted. Evelyn’s composure shattered. “You can’t just say that here!”

“I just did.”

She grabbed his arm. “You’ll ruin everything!”

Frank leaned in. “You already did.”

Something flickered behind her eyes, fear, finally. Then the lights above flickered. No one noticed at first. A cold sensation spread through Frank’s chest, sharp and sudden, like ice cracking.

A voice, calm, mechanical, intimate, echoed in his mind. Reclaimed Worth System initializing.

Frank blinked.

Detected: Extreme Sacrifice Imbalance.

His breath caught. Evelyn was still talking, her words muffled now. “security, get him out”

Returning unacknowledged value…

Frank’s vision sharpened. Ryan screamed. Frank looked down. His fist was buried in Ryan’s stomach. He hadn’t remembered throwing the punch.

Ryan collapsed, vomiting onto the marble floor. Screams erupted again. Frank stepped back, heart pounding, not with rage, but clarity. Evelyn stared at him, pale. “What did you do?”

Frank looked at his hand, flexed his fingers. The voice returned.

Welcome back, Frank Forbes. All sacrifices will be returned, with interest.

He met Evelyn’s eyes and smiled for the first time that night. “This,” he said quietly, “is me taking back what’s mine.”

Behind him, sirens wailed. Above the stage, the IPO banner trembled, its supports creaking, just as the lights went out completely.

And in the darkness, Frank understood one thing with absolute certainty, This time, he would not disappear in silence.