The slap came so fast that for a second, I thought the crack I heard had come from somewhere else.

"Shut your mouth, Victoria!" Richard Sterling barked, his face turning an alarming shade of mottled purple. He grabbed his daughter’s arm, but she shrank away from his grip, completely coming apart at the seams.

Julian stepped forward, looking down at the older man he had once respected as an industry titan. "Debts, Richard? Is that why you insisted on expedited joint authorization on our firm’s escrow accounts last Tuesday? You told me it was a gesture of mutual trust before merging our family interests."

"Julian, this is a family matter, and it belongs in a boardroom, not on an altar," Richard hissed, trying desperately to lower his voice, but the entire first ten rows were listening to every syllable. "Your father and I built this city. If you pull out now, the Sterling name goes down—and I swear to God, Julian, I will drag Vance Infrastructure down with me. Your stock will crash by forty percent at the opening bell on Monday."

"Then let it crash," Julian whispered, his eyes blazing with an unyielding, terrifying resolve. "Because unlike you, Richard, my father taught me that a foundation built on theft, violence, and lies is not worth standing on."

Julian reached up to his lapel, unpinned the white rose boutonnière, and let it fall onto the cathedral floor next to Victoria’s ruined bouquet.

"You didn't just steal from my company," Julian continued, his voice resonating throughout the sanctuary. "You assaulted the woman who raised me. The woman who sacrificed her entire youth to keep our family afloat after my father died. You thought you could strike her, humiliate her, and then stand here and take an oath of honor before God?"