Chapter 437
Alexander
She laughed, the sound hollow and sharp. “Don’t be ridiculous. You can’t just end it.”
“Watch me.”
“Alexander.” She moved toward me again, her hands outstretched. “Whatever this is about, we can work through it. We always do. Remember when we fought about the venue? Or the guest list? We figured it
out.”
“This isn’t about venues or guest lists.”
“Then what is it about?” Her voice rose slightly. “Another woman? Is that what this is? Some little distraction caught your eye?”
Madison’s face flashed through my mind. Not a distraction. Never that.
“It’s about me not wanting to marry you.”
Katherine’s jaw tightened. “You put this ring on my finger.” She held up her hand, the massive diamond catching the light. “You made a commitment.”
“A mistake.”
“A mistake?” Her voice went cold, all warmth draining away. “Do you have any idea what my family has already invested in this wedding? The deposits, the arrangements, the announcements? My mother has been planning this for months.”
“I’ll cover the costs.”
“This isn’t about money!” She spun away, her silk robe swirling around her legs. “This is about reputation. Image. Everything we’ve built together.”
“We haven’t built anything.”
“Haven’t built anything?” She whirled back, her eyes flashing. “I’ve made us into the power couple of Manhattan. Every magazine wants our story. Every event wants us as guests. Do you know how valuable that kind of publicity is?”
“I don’t care about publicity.”
“Of course you don’t. You’re Alexander Knight. You were born into your empire.” She jabbed a finger toward her chest. “I built mine from nothing. Sinclair Luxe is my life’s work, and being associated with you has opened doors I could never have accessed otherwise.”
“So this was always about business for you.” 1
“Don’t act superior. It was business for you too.” She crossed her arms, her chin lifting. “You wanted arm candy for events. Someone photogenic for the society pages. Someone who understood the game and
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played it well. That’s exactly what I gave you
She wasn’t wrong. The engagement had been calculated, strategic. Two people who understood what the other brought to the table. No messy emotions. No complications.
Except now there were complications.
“You’re right,” I said. “It was business. And now I’m terminating our contract.”
Katherme’s laugh was bitter. “You can’t just terminate this like some merger deal. There are
consequences. Ending this engagement now will damage both our reputations. People will talk. They’ll speculate. Your stockholders won’t appreciate the instability.”
“Let them talk.”
“And what about me? What about the damage to Sinclair Luxe?” Her voice cracked slightly. “I’ve worked too hard to let you destroy everything with your sudden change of heart.”
*I’m not destroying anything.”
“Aren’t you?” She moved closer, her eyes boring into mine. “Think about what you’re doing, Alexander. Think about what you’re throwing away. We’re good together. We understand each other. We want the same things.”
“We don’t want the same things.”
“Fine. You want out? Then we’ll handle this carefully. We’ll stage the breakup. Mutual decision, amicable separation, nothing but respect and admiration. We’ll control the narrative.”
“No.”
“No?” Her eyebrows rose. “What do you mean no?”
“I mean, I’m not staging anything. I’m ending this on my terms, and I’m doing it within twenty-four hours.”
Katherine’s face went pale. “You can’t be serious.”
“Completely serious.”
“Alexander, please.” She reached for my hand. “At least give me time to prepare. To get ahead of the story. My new collection launches next month. Bad publicity right now could destroy everything.”
I pulled my hand away. “You should have considered that before you decided to build your business on questionable foundations.”
Her entire body went rigid. “What are you talking about?”
“I know, Katherine. All of it.”
“Know what?”
“The bribes. The industrial espionage. The offshore accounts.” I watched her face carefully. “Should I
214
continue?”
Katherine’s mask cracked completely, fury replacing the calculated charm. “You had me investigated?
“Due diligence Something I should have done before proposing.
“You bastard.” She spat the word like poison. “You have no idea what it takes to compete in this industry. The fashion world is cutthroat. Everyone plays the game.”
“Not everyone bribes editors for favorable coverage.”
“That’s called marketing!”
“Not everyone hacks competitors’ systems to steal designs.”
“That’s called research!”
“Not everyone funnels millions through offshore accounts to avoid taxes.”
Katherine’s hands clenched into fists. “You can’t prove any of that.”
“Want to bet?” I pulled out my phone and scrolled to Leo’s report. “December 2022, you paid Vogue fifty thousand dollars for a cover feature. In January 2023, you hired a freelance hacker to access designs from Valentino’s spring collection. In June 2023, you transferred three million dollars to an account in the Cayman Islands registered under a shell corporation you control. Should I go on?”
Her face had gone from pale to flushed. “You’re bluffing.”
“Try me.” I held her gaze. “End this engagement quietly, or I will release everything to the press. Your choice.”
Katherine stared at me, her chest rising and falling rapidly. The silence stretched between us, thick with
tension.
“You’re making a mistake,” she said finally, her voice low and dangerous.
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“You think you can just walk away? Just end this and ride off into the sunset with whoever caught your attention?” She laughed, cold and sharp. “You’ll regret this, Alexander. Sooner than you think. You’ll realize what you had with me, what you threw away, and you’ll come crawling back.” 1
“I won’t.”
“You will.” She moved closer, her eyes glittering. “And when you do, when you come begging me to take you back, to marry you, to save you from whatever mess you’ve gotten yourself into, I’ll make you work for it. I’ll make you grovel.”
“You’re dreaming.”
“Am I?” Her smile was sharp enough to cut. “We’ll see who’s dreaming, Alexander. We’ll see.”
3/
I turned toward the door
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I paused, not turning around.
“Twenty-four hours?” Katherine’s voice had shifted again, all business now. “That’s all I get?”
“That’s all you get ”
#
“Fine. But you’ll do it properly. A joint statement. Mutual respect. Nothing that makes either of us look bad”
“No.”
“Alexander, please. At least give me that much. For what we had.”
I looked back at her. She stood in the middle of her perfect penthouse, her perfect robe, her perfect life. But underneath it all, I saw the cracks. The desperation. The fear of losing everything she’d clawed her way to building.
For a moment, I almost felt sorry for her. Almost.
“You have twenty-four hours to prepare,” I said. “After that, I’m making my own announcement. How you handle it on your end is up to you.”
“You’re really doing this.”
“I really am.”
Katherine’s expression hardened. “Then get out. Get out of my home and my life. And when you realize your mistake, when whoever you think you want decides you’re not worth the trouble, don’t come looking for sympathy from me.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
I walked out, the elevator doors closing on Katherine’s furious face. The descent felt faster than the ascent. Lighter somehow, despite the mess I’d just created.
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