“Sign the divorce papers now! I’m sick of looking at your bloated, milk-stained body! I need a young trophy wife worthy of my CEO status, not a pathetic housewife like you!” My husband threw divorce papers in my face while I was still bleeding from an emergency C-section. He brought his mistress secretary to mock me. He didn’t know his CEO title was just a puppet role I created, and I was the real Chairman who owned everything.

Mark swallowed. “It’s ours.”

“It belongs to the Vance Family Trust,” Anna said. “Mine.”

“The car?”

“Corporate lease. My majority holding.”

“The company—?”

“My father left me controlling shares. You owned nothing. You were hired.”

She nodded to Jameson.

“At 4 a.m., I convened the board.”

Her gaze locked on Mark.

“You’re terminated. Effective immediately. For cause.”

“For… what?” Mark whispered.

“Embezzlement. Reputational damage. Ethical violations.”

She turned to Chloe.

“And you’re dismissed for facilitating it. Five minutes to collect your belongings.”

Mark looked around. No admiration. No loyalty. Only judgment.

“I built this!” he screamed.

“No,” Anna said calmly. “You stood on it.”

Mark lunged.

Jameson dropped him to the floor in seconds.

“Keys,” Anna said.

They were taken. All of them.

“You wanted nothing,” she said softly. “Now you have it.”

---

CHAPTER 7: THE FALL

Mark was dragged upright, blood streaking his face.

“Please,” he sobbed. “The twins—I’m their father.”

“A father protects,” Anna replied. “You’re a donor.”

She turned away.

“Remove him.”

Glass doors spun. Rain began.

Mark stood on the sidewalk with no access, no money, no future.

Inside, silence lingered—then applause.

Slow. Rising. Unstoppable.

Anna lifted a hand.

“Back to work,” she said. “We stabilize today.”

She turned to Elias. “Draft a dignified release.”

Then quietly, “Take me back to the hospital. My kids are hungry.”

---

EPILOGUE: QUIET POWER

One year later.

Sunlight filled the nursery. Leo and Mia crawled, laughing.

Anna sat on the floor in jeans and a T-shirt.

A message arrived.

Lawsuit dismissed. NDA upheld. Miller in Oakland. Chloe gone.

Anna deleted it.

She kissed her daughter and looked out at the city.

The press called her iron.

She knew better.

She was simply a mother who stopped stepping back.

And that was enough.