Heir to an Indispensable Family

Chapter 3

The crowd ate up every word Sarah and James said. Heads bobbed up and down in agreement. Voices started rising from different corners of the room.

“Yeah, apologize!”

“Who does he think he is?”

“Sarah was just trying to help him out and this is how he repays her?”

“Get on that stage and kiss his feet like he said!”

More and more people joined in. They looked at Hector like he was dirt on their shoes. Like he should be grateful Sarah Hendrix even knew his name.

How dare some nobody computer science student think he was in love with the most beautiful girl in school? How dare he embarrass her on such an important day in front of all these big investors?

But Hector didn't hear any of it. Their words bounced right off him. His mind was spinning too fast, trying to process everything that just happened.

Sarah Hendrix was a snake. A real, cold-blooded snake who had been playing him this whole time. And James Wesley? That fool was standing up there taking credit for work he didn't do, acting like some big shot when he didn't create a single line of code.

Then something clicked in Hector's head. Sarah must have been bought. That was the only thing that made sense. James's family had money - everyone knew that. James loved bragging about how his family was worth a hundred million dollars.

But Hector knew better. He'd done his homework. Late one night, curiosity got the best of him and he dug into James's family business. What he found wasn't pretty. The Wesley family was crumbling. All that talk about hundreds of millions was just smoke and mirrors. They had maybe a few million left, and that number wasn't even close to ten million. The way things were going, Hector calculated they had about seven months before everything collapsed. Seven months until the great Wesley family would be broke, living worse than beggars on the street.

The Wesley family was drowning in debt, but James kept acting like money grew on trees. Designer clothes, expensive cars, fancy restaurants - he never let anyone see the cracks in his perfect rich boy image.

The whole Wesley clan was putting on the biggest show of their lives. They rented luxury cars they couldn't afford. They lived in a house that was about to be taken by the bank. They threw parties with money they didn't have, all to keep up the lie that they were still swimming in cash. But the truth was ugly. Every month, they sank deeper into the hole they dug for themselves.

That's exactly why they were going to crash and burn in seven months. All that fake living was catching up to them fast.

But now everything changed. James being Sarah's boyfriend wasn't just about love - it was about survival. The Wesley family just got handed a golden ticket. Fashion Icon was going to be huge. Everyone in the tech world was already talking about it. The app was going to make millions, maybe even billions.

Sarah had made her choice crystal clear. She picked the fake rich boy over the person who actually built her dreams. She let the Wesley family trick her with their lies and empty promises. But the worst part wasn't that she got fooled.

The worst part was that Sarah Hendrix had chosen to destroy the one person who gave her everything. She decided to bite the hand that fed her.

At that moment Hectors cleared his throat. The sound cut through all the noise and chatter in the room. People stopped talking and looked at him again, expecting him to finally give up and crawl to the stage like they wanted.

Instead, Hector reached into his pocket and pulled out a small velvet box. He opened it slowly, showing everyone the diamond ring inside. It wasn't huge, but it was real and beautiful. The kind of ring a guy like him, should saves up for months to buy.

“I was going to propose to you today, Sarah.” His voice came out steady and calm, nothing like the desperate shouting from before.

“I thought this would be the perfect moment, right after you gave me credit for our work. But you just lost that chance forever. And trust me, you're going to regret this.”

The whole room went dead silent. Nobody saw that coming. They all expected Hector to break down, to get on his hands and knees and beg for forgiveness. Instead, he was standing there holding an engagement ring, talking like he still had some kind of power.

People stared at each other with their mouths hanging open. This wasn't how things were supposed to go. The nobody was supposed to crawl and apologize, not act like he was the one in control.

Sarah's eyes went wide for just a second, but then she threw her head back and started laughing. It wasn't a happy laugh - it was the kind of laugh that could cut glass.

“Regret not marrying a pauper like you? Are you completely out of your mind, Hector?” She wiped fake tears from her eyes and looked around at the crowd like they were sharing some inside joke.

“I had no idea you were this mentally unstable. Maybe I should help you find a good doctor after all this is over. But only if you apologize to me and James like you're supposed to.”

Immediately James stepped forward with his chest puffed out, pointing his finger at Hector like he was some kind of judge.

“Time's running out for you, loser. You've got five minutes to get up here and do exactly what I told you to do. Kiss my feet and apologize properly.” James's voice got louder and meaner.

“After that, the deal's off. You'll be seeing me in court instead.”

He started pacing back and forth on the stage, acting like he owned the whole building.

“And let me make something crystal clear - once those five minutes are up, I won't accept any apology. I don't care if you cry, I don't care if you beg, I don't care if you get on your belly and crawl like a snake. You do what I say right now, or you can spend the rest of your pathetic life rotting in a prison cell.”

The crowd started getting excited again, some people even started counting down the time like it was New Year's Eve.

But then someone standing close to the stage squinted their eyes and looked harder at the ring in Hector's hand.

“Wait a minute... isn't that the Jelone King Wedding ring?” The person's voice cut through all the noise.

“That thing looks exactly like it. That ring costs like a million dollars!”

Another person near them leaned in for a better look and gasped.

“Oh my God, you're right! That's definitely the same ring from all those advertisements they've been running for months. I'd recognize that design anywhere.”

Sarah and James both froze on the stage. Their confident smiles started to fade as they tried to figure out what was happening.