The final moves against their company came together much faster than I’d expected.
Two weeks later.
LN Group’s North American division formally announced that it had acquired full ownership of Northstar Design, Ethan’s biggest competitor.
At the same time, I sued Ethan’s company on Northstar’s behalf for patent infringement and copyright infringement involving Northstar’s designs.
In court, the original design drafts and timelines left no room for doubt.
Ethan’s attorneys lost ground at every turn.
On the witness stand, Anna, the lead designer, wept pitifully and tried to pin the blame on the interns under her.
“I didn’t… I really didn’t know that drawing was a discarded Northstar draft. They gave it to me to use…”
I sat in the front row of the gallery, watching the farce without sympathy.
In the end, the court ruled against Ethan’s company and ordered it to pay enormous damages.
When the judgment was announced, Ethan slumped in his seat at the defense table, as if every ounce of strength had left him.
The company he’d spent ten years building was finished.
Nathan and Lucas had signed joint and several personal guarantees for the company. The court seized all their homes and cars.
That afternoon, I stepped out of the courthouse.
The four of them blocked my path.
The five of us stood together again, three years after I’d left.
Our positions, though, couldn’t have been more different.
“Claire Bennett, are you happy now?”
Nathan’s eyes were bloodshot, his expression feral.
“You destroyed Ethan, and you destroyed us! We’re your brothers!”
“My brothers?”
I walked toward him in my heels, step by step.
“Three years ago, when you put Anna’s name on the proposal I’d spent a month working on so you could cover for her, did you think of me as your sister?”
“When you canceled my flight for Moab without asking and made me guess what you wanted in Miami like some kind of clown, did you think of me as your sister?”
Nathan had no answer. His lips trembled, but he couldn’t get out a single word in his defense.
Ethan stepped in front of me, his eyes frighteningly empty.
“Cee, I have nothing left.”
He forced a miserable attempt at a smile.
“The company’s gone. The money’s gone. Now… You’re all I have. I know you’re getting back at me. I’ll take it. Can we start over?”
He reached for me, but Lauren quickly blocked his hand.
“Ethan.”
I looked at him, my voice as calm as if we were discussing the weather.
“You give yourself too much credit.”
“I sued you and acquired Northstar because it was profitable. It was strictly business.”
“Revenge? You’re not worth that kind of effort.”
I turned to Anna, who cowered at the back.
“As for you.”
“Without those three to clean up your messes, let’s see who’ll play your guessing games now.”
Anna went white. She screamed, covered her ears, and crouched on the ground, breaking down in tears.
I ignored them and walked toward the car parked at the curb.
I opened the car door.
I remembered that sunny afternoon on Crescent Key in Miami three years earlier.
I’d mailed myself a postcard that day.
The writing had long since faded.
But I remembered exactly what it said:
“Stop guessing. Keep moving.”
The car door closed.
I leaned back, watched the streets slide past the window, and let out a long breath.
The ten-year game of “reading each other’s minds” was over. For good.
And my life was only just beginning.
(The End)