The Disgraced Heir's Revenge

The Hospital Betrayal

POV: ETHAN

Seriously, who the hell decided hospital fluorescents needed to be that bright? 

The lights were killing me. I blinked and immediately regretted it. My eyelids felt like someone had replaced them with sandpaper. Everything hurt… not like "ow, I stubbed my toe" hurt, but like someone had taken a baseball bat to my entire body and then gone back for a second round just to be sure.

My ribs were screaming. My left arm was wrapped in so much plaster it felt like I was wearing a cement block. And somewhere deep in my gut, something was definitely, seriously wrong.

The morphine helped. Kind of. Turned the pain from "please kill me now" to "maybe I can survive the next five minutes." I tried to remember what happened. The car, yeah. My Audi. I'd been driving home from the office… late, because when wasn't I late… and then… Nothing, just blank space. Shit.

"Oh good. You're awake."

My head jerked toward the door, bad idea. Pain exploded through my neck and I bit back a groan.

Emma stood there wearing that black Valentino dress. The one I'd bought her last month because she'd smiled at me and I'd felt like an idiot teenager with a crush instead of a twenty-eight-year-old CEO. Fifteen hundred dollars for a dress. She'd kissed me and said I was too good to her.

Her hair was perfect. Those beachy waves that took her stylist two hours to make look "effortless." Full makeup. Heels that cost more than my hospital bill probably did. She looked like she was going to brunch, not visiting her fiancé in the hospital.

Daniel, my best friend, walked in behind her. We’ve been friends since college. He lived in my dorm room sophomore year because his roommate was a nightmare, and helped me build Cole Industries from literally nothing. I trust him with my life.

But wait.. Daniel’s hand was on Emma's lower back. And Emma wasn't moving away. The fuck…?

Something cold slithered down my spine.

"Hey, man." Daniel flashed that million-dollar smile. The one that made investors write checks and made me think everything would be okay. "You look like hell."

"Feel like it too," I managed. My voice sounded like I'd been gargling gravel. "What... what happened?"

"Car accident." Emma clicked closer on those stupid expensive heels. "You don't remember?"

I shook my head. The room tilted sideways. "No, I…."

"Well." She studied me. "I guess it doesn't really matter now."

"Doesn't matter?" I tried to sit up but my ribs gladly told me to go fuck myself. I fell back against the pillows, gasping. "Em, what…"

"We need to talk," Daniel said as he pulled up a chair and sat down like he owned the place. "About us, the company. Everything."

The way he said "us" made my stomach drop.

Emma held up her left hand, and the diamond ring on her finger caught the light, throwing rainbows everywhere. 

What?... That’s not my grandmother's ring. Not the modest half-carat vintage piece I'd given her when I proposed. That’s a different ring.

"Daniel and I are engaged," she said.

The words didn't compute. I heard them. My brain registered them. But they didn't make sense, like someone had just told me the sky was green or two plus two equaled fish.

"What?" It came out barely a whisper.

"Come on, Ethan." Daniel leaned forward, all casual and friendly. "Don't make this harder than it needs to be. You had to know things weren't working."

"Had to know…" I stared at Emma, at the woman I'd planned to marry in six months. The woman I'd loved for three years. "Em, what the hell is he talking about?"

She sighed. Actually fucking sighed, like I was being difficult on purpose.

"Ethan, we've been growing apart for months. You're always working, always so serious about everything. I need someone who makes me feel alive, you know? Someone who isn't afraid to actually enjoy life."

"Someone like Daniel." My voice sounded dead.

"Exactly." She smiled. Like she'd just explained why she preferred coffee over tea. No big deal. "He gets me in ways you never did."

The heart monitor started beeping faster. I couldn't breathe.

Daniel stood up, smoothed his suit. Armani, probably. He always wore Armani. "And we need to talk about Cole Industries."

"What about it?"

"The board held an emergency meeting while you were unconscious." He pulled out his phone, scrolled through something. Casual. Easy. "Given your... situation and the fact that nobody knows when you'll recover, they voted to transfer operational control to me. It’s a unanimous decision, and it’s effective immediately."

The beeping got louder.

"They what?"

"It's for the best," Daniel said, pocketing his phone. "The company needs strong leadership right now. Someone who can make tough calls. You understand."

I didn't understand, couldn't understand. This wasn't real. It couldn't be real.

"You're taking my company."

"Our company," he corrected with a stern voice like I was a kid.. "And I'm not taking it. I'm saving it. There's a difference."

Emma moved to Daniel's side and his arm went around her waist. They looked like a power couple magazine cover. What Emma and I was supposed to be.

I might throw up at this point.

"We brought papers for you to sign." Emma pulled a folder from her purse and set it on the bedside table like she was handling something dirty. "Divorce papers. Very generous terms, all things considered."

"Considering what?"

"Considering you have nothing left," Daniel said. His voice was maniacally gentle, almost kind. And that made it even worse. "No company, no assets, no future here. We're offering fifty thousand to help you start over. Somewhere else. Somewhere far away. It's more than fair."

My hand that wasn't broken was shaking as I stared at the folder. Three years with Emma. Ten years building Cole Industries. My entire adult life, reduced to a stack of documents.

"Just sign, Ethan." Emma produced a pen and placed it next to the papers with two fingers. "Don't make this ugly."

I wanted to scream, wanted to rip the IV out of my arm and strangle them both. Wanted to do literally anything except lie there broken and helpless while they dismantled my entire existence. 

But I couldn't move. My fingers slowly closed around the pen, fighting hot tears back from streaming down my face.

"Good choice." Daniel nodded like I was a dog who'd finally learned a trick. "I knew you'd be reasonable."

Each signature felt like ripping out a piece of my soul. My hand shook so badly the signatures looked like a kid wrote them.

Emma. Gone.

The company. Gone.

Everything. Just... gone.

"Oh." Emma paused at the door. "Your mother's in the ICU. Three floors up. She's been in a coma for two weeks now. Terrible accident."

Ice flooded my veins. "What?"

"The medical bills are pretty astronomical." She shook her head, fake sympathy plastered across her face. "And now that you don't have insurance or income... well. We talked to the hospital administration. They'll do what they can, but you know how these things go."

The ugly threat was obvious. Sign and disappear, or watch your mother die. Daniel squeezed Emma's hand. "Take care of yourself, man. And hey…. no hard feelings, right?"

They left and the door clicked shut. I lay there in the dark, staring at ceiling tiles and counting them because if I stopped counting I'd start screaming and never stop. 

Daniel, my brother. The guy who'd stayed up with me until dawn arguing about business models and changing the world and being better than our parents' generation. And… Emma. The woman who'd said yes when I proposed, who'd cried happy tears and told me she'd never been so sure of anything. They just destroyed me, and smiled while doing it.

They probably even fucked in my bed while I was unconscious. My eyes burned but no tears came. Maybe I was too broken even for that. 

The morphine pulled at me, dragging me down. Maybe I'd sleep and just... not wake up. Maybe that would be better than… a blinding light suddenly exploded across my vision. I jerked upright, not minding the pain.

A glowing blue screen materialized above my bed, floating there like something out of a sci-fi movie. The text pulsed with light that made my eyes water.

[SYSTEM ACTIVATED]

[VENGEANCE PROTOCOL INITIATED]

What the fuck….

More text scrolled across the impossible screen:

[USER: ETHAN COLE] [PHYSICAL CONDITION: CRITICAL] [FINANCIAL ASSETS: ZERO] [SOCIAL STATUS: DESTROYED] [ALLIES: NONE]

I couldn't move. This can’t be real. 

It’s probably brain damage from the accident, or the morphine, or I was actually dying and this was some weird hallucination before the end….

[MISSION PARAMETERS LOADING...]

[OBJECTIVE: RECLAIM STOLEN ASSETS] [OBJECTIVE: DESTROY BETRAYERS] [OBJECTIVE: SAVE CATHERINE COLE] [TIME LIMIT: 100 DAYS] [FAILURE CONSEQUENCE: CATHERINE COLE DIES. INHERITANCE FORFEITED PERMANENTLY.]

“One hundred days,” my head echoed. “Get everything back, destroy them, save Mom. Or lose it all forever.”

[FIRST MISSION LOADING...]