Ethan barely recognized himself anymore.
He stood in front of the bathroom mirror, gripping the edges of the sink so hard his knuckles turned white. The man staring back at him looked like a stranger—eyes hollow, skin pale, and tension carved deep into his features. His shirt was wrinkled from a night spent on the couch, too many glasses of whiskey to dull the sharp edges of panic gnawing at his insides. A faint tremor ran through his hands, not from alcohol but from the exhaustion that no amount of sleep could fix.
He splashed cold water on his face, hoping to clear the fog from his mind, but it didn’t work. The pressure was constant now, an ever-present weight pressing down on his chest. The Harris deal was a mess. Brad’s firing had created a ripple of unrest within the company, and now the Board was calling for a special meeting—one that felt more like an interrogation than a review.
Ethan had tried to fight back. He’d called in every favor, twisted every conversation to his advantage, but the truth had a way of bubbling up no matter how hard he tried to bury it. Brad hadn’t stayed quiet after all. The man had spoken to the Board, told them about the chaos in Ethan’s department, the reckless decisions, the missed targets. The picture Brad had painted was damning.
His phone buzzed on the counter, jolting him out of his thoughts. It was Julie.
You okay? Haven’t seen you since last night. Kids are asking where you are.
Ethan stared at the message for a long moment, feeling a sharp pang of guilt twist in his chest. He hadn’t even been home when the kids went to bed. He’d slipped in late and crashed on the couch, too drained to face anyone. It had been weeks since he’d had a real conversation with Julie, and the distance between them had grown into something unbridgeable. He could sense it in every silence, every forced smile, and every cold touch.
Instead of replying, Ethan slipped the phone into his pocket and turned away from the mirror. He couldn’t deal with Julie right now. He couldn’t deal with anything except the crisis waiting for him at the office.
When Ethan arrived at the office that morning, the atmosphere was thick with tension. The usual hum of activity felt muted, as though everyone was holding their breath, waiting for something to break. He could feel the eyes on him as he walked down the hallway, but no one said a word. Cara greeted him with a tight nod, her expression carefully neutral. She knew. They all knew.
“Mark Stevens from the Board is waiting in your office,” she said quietly. “He’s been here for half an hour.”
Ethan nodded, his jaw tight. Mark was the last person he wanted to see, but he knew this conversation was inevitable. Ever since Brad’s meeting with the Board, Ethan had been preparing himself for the fallout. He’d tried to get ahead of it, tried to control the narrative, but nothing had worked.
As he opened the door to his office, he found Mark sitting in one of the leather chairs, flipping through a file with a look that could only be described as disappointed. The weight of that look hit Ethan harder than any outburst could have.
“Mark,” Ethan greeted him stiffly, closing the door behind him. “I didn’t realize you’d be here this early.”
Mark looked up, his eyes cold. “Ethan, we need to talk.”
Ethan walked around to his desk, trying to gather the last shreds of control he still had. He sat down, resting his hands on the polished wood surface, but Mark didn’t give him a chance to settle.
“We’ve got a serious problem,” Mark said, his voice calm but laced with authority. “Brad’s spoken to the Board. He’s made some pretty damning accusations, and we’ve been going through the numbers… Things aren’t adding up.”
Ethan felt his stomach drop, but he kept his face neutral. “Brad’s trying to cover his own mistakes. He wasn’t capable of handling his responsibilities, and now he’s looking for someone to blame.”
Mark raised an eyebrow. “That’s what I thought at first, but it’s more than that. There are inconsistencies in your reports, Ethan. Targets that were never realistic, numbers that don’t match up with what you’ve been telling us.”
Ethan’s pulse quickened. He opened his mouth to argue, to defend himself, but the words wouldn’t come. How could he explain the shortcuts he’d taken, the half-truths he’d used to keep everything from collapsing? The lies he’d convinced himself were necessary to survive?
“I trusted you,” Mark said, his voice softening but still firm. “The Board trusted you. But this… this is beyond what we can overlook.”
Ethan swallowed hard, his throat dry. “Mark, I can fix this. I just need more time.”
Mark shook his head. “We’re out of time, Ethan. The Board is recommending we put you on leave, effective immediately.”
The words hit him like a sledgehammer. “On leave?”
Mark’s expression softened, almost pitying. “It’s temporary. We’ll conduct an internal review, go through everything, and figure out where things went wrong. If we can clear this up, you’ll be reinstated. But right now, there’s too much at stake.”
Ethan felt the room spinning around him. This couldn’t be happening. Not after everything he’d done to hold it all together. Not after all the sacrifices he’d made. “You can’t do this. I’ve given everything to this company. Everything.”
“I know you have,” Mark said gently. “But we have to do what’s best for the business.”
Ethan stared at the man across from him, his heart pounding in his chest. The walls were closing in, the weight of his mistakes crashing down on him all at once. He had lost control. The realization was like a punch to the gut, knocking the air out of him. There was no fixing this. No amount of work or manipulation could turn things around now.
“You should take some time off,” Mark said, standing up and gathering his papers. “Get your head straight. Spend time with your family. We’ll be in touch.”
Ethan didn’t move. He couldn’t. He watched as Mark left the office, the door clicking shut behind him. The silence that followed was deafening, the emptiness of the room pressing in on him like a vise.
That night, Ethan didn’t go home.
He couldn’t face Julie, couldn’t face the questions she would have or the concern in her eyes. Instead, he found himself at a hotel, the dimly lit room mirroring the darkness that had settled over his mind. He stared at the ceiling, his thoughts spiraling in every direction.
The alcohol didn’t help, but he kept drinking anyway, hoping to drown out the noise. The decisions he had made, the lies he had told, the people he had hurt—everything felt like a noose tightening around his neck. He had thought he could control it all, thought he could handle the pressure. But now it was clear that he had been fooling himself.
Somewhere, deep down, Ethan knew that this was the end. There was no coming back from this. The company would move on without him. His family… well, they would survive. Julie was strong, stronger than him. But Ethan? He didn’t know if he could survive this.
The phone on the nightstand buzzed with a new message, but he didn’t bother to check it. He knew it would be Julie, or maybe Cara, asking where he was, if he was okay. But none of it mattered anymore. Nothing did.
Ethan stared at the empty whiskey glass in his hand, feeling the weight of his failure pressing down on him like a tidal wave. It was suffocating, crushing him from the inside out. He was drowning in his own despair, and there was no one left to save him.
He stood up, unsteady on his feet, and walked to the window. The city lights blurred in the distance, twinkling like stars he couldn’t reach. The world carried on, indifferent to his pain, indifferent to his downfall.
In that moment, Ethan realized that he had crossed a line—one that couldn’t be undone. There was no redemption waiting for him on the other side of this. No second chances. Only darkness.
Part 5 | Part 7
