Divorcing The Female CEO: Leon's Revenge

5. The Man Behind the Empire

The conference room at Starline Corporation was unusually tense.

A half-moon table of stone-faced investors stared at the lone woman standing before them, Selena Hart. Her hands were on the table. Her shoulders, rigid.

Behind her, two large screens flickered with failing stock graphs. The red lines dipped like bleeding wounds.

“Gentlemen,” Selena said, voice firm despite the storm inside her, “we’re restructuring. Our internal audit is complete, and our primary bottlenecks have been identified. Give me four weeks, and I will bring this company back to green.”

Silence.

Then one investor, a man in his fifties with thick glasses and a silver cufflink, cleared his throat. “Ms. Hart, with respect… your word no longer holds the weight it once did.”

Selena’s lips parted. “Excuse me?”

“We’ve lost faith,” he said bluntly. “This company is hemorrhaging confidence. Deals are evaporating. And now, troubling whispers link your past funding to questionable sources. If we don’t act now, there may not be a Starline left to save.”

Selena’s fingers tightened on the edge of the table. “I am Starline.”

“No,” a younger woman on the board interjected. “You were the face. Now we’re discovering there was a hidden architect. The man behind the curtain. The man who, ”

The conference doors opened. Every head turned. 

Leon Grant stepped in, dressed in tailored charcoal, accompanied by Jason in a sleek black suit. They moved like gravity followed them.

Selena’s breath caught. He didn’t look at her. He looked directly at the investors and walked to the center of the room, dropping a thick file onto the table.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Leon said calmly, “I’m here to clarify your confusion.”

He opened the file, revealing documents with signatures, names, and dates, some from as far back as seven years ago.

“Before Starline launched, Selena Hart was a promising entrepreneur. Bright, driven, but unrecognized by the venture capital world. That changed when anonymous angel investors appeared, offering funding, strategy, and protection.”

He flipped a page. “That angel investor was me.” Gasps filled the room. Selena froze. 

Leon continued. “Through a network of shell companies, I built bridges, opened doors, and formed relationships. Your manufacturing partner in Thailand? I own the holding group. The fashion tech startup that Starline ‘merged’ with last year? That was mine.”

He paused. “And I let her take the credit.”

One investor leaned forward. “Why stay hidden all this time?”

Leon’s smile was faint. “Because I believed in her. I thought love meant giving without expectation. But she made it clear I was expendable. Now, so is my silence.”

Selena’s voice cracked. “Leon, ”

He turned to her for the first time. There was no warmth in his eyes. “You once told me I should learn my place.”

His voice was quiet. But in that room, it struck like thunder. “This was always my place. You just sat on the throne I built.”

The older investor stood slowly. “So what do you propose, Mr. Grant?”

Leon walked to the center of the room, gaze steady. “I propose a reformation. Starline’s structure will be absorbed into Vanguard Capital as a subdivision. Leadership will be reviewed. Executive decisions must pass through a supervisory board, one I chair.”

Selena’s eyes widened. “You want to take my company?”

Leon looked at her, sharp and unyielding. “I want to save it. And I won’t let pride sink what I once protected.”

The young woman investor nodded slowly. “He’s offering us a way out of freefall.”

“But it’s a hostile takeover,” Selena said bitterly. “You’re forcing my hand.”

Leon stepped closer. “No. You forced mine the day you buried me.”

After the Meeting, the boardroom emptied slowly, members murmuring about transitions and legalities.

Selena remained seated at the table, staring at nothing. Leon lingered at the door.

She finally looked up. “You made me look like a fool,” she whispered.

“No,” Leon said. “You did that on your own.”

She rose to her feet, shaking. “You plotted this. You let me walk into failure while you planned to wear the crown.”

Leon’s voice stayed low. “You wore the crown. I held up the kingdom. The difference is now you know what the weight feels like when I’m not beneath it.”

Selena’s eyes glistened. “You loved me.”

“I did.”

“Then why hurt me like this?”

Leon stepped closer, too close. “Because I was already bleeding while you stood smiling. This isn’t revenge, Selena. This is liberation.”

Flashback. Two years ago. Selena laughed over champagne at a gala, dismissing Leon as he tried to warn her about a crooked investor.

“Stop playing the worried husband,” she had said. “You don’t get how these games are played.”

Leon had stood there, humiliated. Small. Unseen. That night, he started quietly withdrawing support. He left her success intact, but pulled out the scaffolding.

…

That Night, Selena sat at her room, makeup untouched, wine glass full.

Her empire was still standing, but she no longer held the keys. Her phone buzzed. A message from Mia. “Staff layoffs start Monday. They approved Leon’s restructure. Are… you okay?”

Selena didn’t reply. She opened her message thread with Leon. Typed. Deleted. Typed again. “I’m sorry.”

She didn’t hit send, because she knew, too late, that sorry doesn’t rebuild empires.

..

It was late night at Leon’s Office. Jason set down two files.

“One is a list of companies circling Starline for acquisition. They want scraps. The other…is about the man tracing your offshore entities. The one from Hong Kong.”

Leon looked up. His brow furrowed.

“He’s not after Starline,” Jason said. “He’s after you.”

Leon took the file, flipping it open. The photo clipped to the top showed a lean man in a silver suit, sipping coffee at a rooftop bar.

Underneath the photo: Zhou Ming, Operative, Silver Axis Group.

Jason added, “This isn’t just about Selena anymore.”

Leon nodded slowly. “Then we need to prepare.”

…

At a rooftop café across the city, Zhou Ming watches a news screen replaying Leon’s speech.

He smirks and sips his drink. Beside him, a phone buzzes. He answers with one word. “Proceed.”

In the distance, sirens wail, and someone breaks into a Vanguard Capital database.