Chapter 15 - The Ballroom Reveal
By dawn, the gala was still technically in progress.
A few guests had left.
Most stayed because rich people hate missing scandals.
Ethan returned.
This time, he walked into the ballroom.
Cane in one hand.
Marcus beside him.
Isabella behind them.
Brooke followed last.
Ethan reached the stage.
Victor, the event manager, stared like he had seen a ghost.
Ethan looked at him.
Victor swallowed.
“For now?”
“We’ll discuss why you removed an invited guest from his assigned table.”
Victor looked sick.
Ethan took the microphone.
“Good evening.”
No one laughed now.
Empty.
Brooke stood at the back.
Chad was in custody.
Martin was with investigators.
Ethan continued.
“I came here in a wheelchair because that is how most public reports describe me.”
He paused.
“I also came because Sterling Biotech is now under my control.”
Phones rose.
He hated that.
But expected it.
Brooke closed her eyes.
“I came to observe.”
He looked around.
“What people do around perceived weakness tells you more than what they do around visible power.”
Good.
“Tonight I watched staff ignored, employees threatened, a guest moved away from his assigned seat, and executives lie about the condition of a company they were paid to protect.”
He did not name Brooke.
He did not need to.
“I also watched one banquet attendant treat a stranger with dignity when she believed he had nothing to offer her.”
Everyone looked at Isabella.
Ethan smiled.
“She is not being promoted because she was nice to me.”
“She is being hired because she noticed what executives missed.”
“Sterling Biotech’s leadership is suspended pending investigation.”
“And a full review of historical clinical-trial reporting begins today.”
Ethan stepped away from the microphone.
“So this whole disability thing was fake?”
Ethan stopped.
Turned.
“No.”
He lifted the cane.
“The accident was real.”
May you like
Then he looked at the wheelchair beside the stage.
“So was everything you showed me because of it.”
