The silence in the room was not normal.

It was dense.

Heavy.

Sepulchral.

Julián, the regional director who just ten seconds ago was laughing out loud with his empty glass in his hand, now looked like a wax statue melting under the spotlights.

His smile had frozen into a grotesque grimace.

Her eyes went from the woman soaked in wine to the man who had just entered.

That man was no ordinary guest.

It was Marcus Vane .

The owner of the conglomerate.

The man whose signature appeared on the checks of everyone present.

And worst of all: Marcus Vane never showed up at company parties.

Never.

.

.

.

They said he was a busy, cold, and distant man.

But there it was.

And he wasn’t looking at anyone.

He only had eyes for the “waitress” who was trembling in the center of the room, surrounded by broken glass and stained with red wine.

Julian tried to swallow, but his mouth was as dry as the desert.

The sound of Marcus’s footsteps echoed on the parquet floor.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Each step was a hammer blow to Julian’s ego.

Marcus reached Elena.

She didn’t care about stepping in the spilled wine with her three-thousand-dollar Italian shoes.

With a gentleness that contrasted sharply with his imposing presence, he took a handkerchief from his pocket.

It wasn’t just any handkerchief, it was pure silk.

And with it, he began to dry Elena’s hands.

“Did you cut yourself?” Marcus asked.

His voice was low and deep.

But in that absolute silence, it could be heard even in the kitchen.

Elena shook her head, unable to speak.

Tears rolled down her cheeks, mingling with the humiliation that still burned in her skin.

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Marcus nodded slowly.

Then he kissed Elena’s forehead in front of five hundred people.

The audience held their breath in unison.

It was at that precise moment that Julian’s brain “clicked”.

Panic hit him like a freight train.

She wasn’t a new employee.

She was not an extra hired by the catering agency.

Julian felt his legs give way.

Marcus turned around.

There was no longer any softness in her face.

His expression had changed radically.

Now it was the face of a predator looking at wounded prey.

Her dark, piercing eyes swept across the room until they fixed on Julian.

Julian, in a reflexive act of pure stupidity and nervousness, tried to fix it.

“Mr. Vane…” he stammered, taking a step forward with a shaky smile. “What… what a surprise to see you here. We were just… you know, joking around a bit with the staff. A minor accident.”

Serious mistake.

Marcus didn’t blink.

“Are you kidding?” Marcus repeated.

The word floated in the air, laden with poison.

Marcus let go of his wife’s hand and walked slowly towards Julian.

The space between them shrank until it was suffocating.

Julian instinctively stepped back, bumping into the appetizer table.

“You spilled wine on her,” Marcus said, not as a question, but as a sentence.

“It was… it slipped, sir. She crossed the street and… well, you know how they are. Clumsy.”

Julian sought support from his tablemates.

But nobody looked at him.

Everyone looked down.

Nobody wanted to be within the radius of the impending explosion.

They had left him alone.

Marcus stopped half a meter away from him.

“What are they like?” Marcus asked, bowing his head. “Explain it to me.”

Julian was sweating profusely.

—The service… the service people…

Marcus smiled.

But it wasn’t a friendly smile.

It was a smile that chilled the blood of everyone present.

“That woman,” Marcus said, pointing at Elena while still looking Julian in the eye, “is not ‘service’.”

He paused dramatically.

He let the tension rise until it was unbearable.

—That woman is Elena Vane .

A murmur of shock rippled through the room like a shockwave.

“She’s my wife,” Marcus continued, raising his voice to leave no doubt. “And she owns 51% of the shares in this holding company.”

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Julian’s world stopped.

The color disappeared from his face so quickly that he looked like a corpse.

The majority owner?

That meant she wasn’t just the boss’s wife.

She was his boss .

And he had just thrown a glass of wine on her and called her clumsy.

Julian opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

Just a pathetic whimper.

Elena, who had regained her composure, approached Marcus.

He was no longer looking at the ground.

Now he was looking at Julian.

And in his eyes there was no more fear.

There was pity.

—Julian —Marcus said, his voice tinged with cold metal—, did you know that Elena insisted on coming incognito today?

Julian shook his head, trembling.

“I wanted to see how their managers treated the people who actually do the hard work,” Marcus explained. “I wanted to know who deserved the promotion to Global Vice President.”

Julian felt a sharp pain in his chest.

That position was his.

They had been promised it.

I had been working towards that for months.

“I was going to give it to you,” Marcus said, confirming his worst nightmare. “Your numbers are impeccable. Your performance is excellent.”

Marcus moved a little closer, invading her personal space.

—But character… character cannot be taught on a spreadsheet.

Marcus put his hand in his jacket.

Julian closed his eyes, expecting the worst.

Marcus pulled out a phone.

He dialed a number and put it on speakerphone.

“Security,” a voice sounded from the other end.

“I’m in the main hall,” Marcus said, still looking at Julian. “I need you to escort the former regional director out of the building.”

“Former director?” Julian asked, his voice barely a whisper. “Mr. Vane, please… I have children, I have a mortgage… it was a mistake, I can apologize…”

He turned to Elena, desperate.

—Mrs. Vane, please. Elena. I’m sorry. I’ll pay for the dress. I’ll pay for ten dresses. Please!

Elena stared at him.

Silence reigned once more.

Everyone expected her to soften.

That his noble heart would give him a second chance.

But Elena remembered the laughter.

I remembered the coldness of the wine.

I remembered the humiliation.

“It’s not about the dress, Julián,” she said firmly. “It’s about dignity.”

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Elena stepped forward.

—And a person who needs to humiliate others to feel important has no place in my company.

Julian fell to his knees.

Literally.

She collapsed to the ground, crying, pleading.

It was a pathetic image.

The man who minutes before had believed himself to be a god, was now a rag begging for mercy.

“You’re fired,” Marcus declared. “And for ‘serious violation of the code of conduct and physical assault,’ you’re leaving without severance pay.”

But Marcus wasn’t finished.

“Oh, and Julian…” he added as two enormous security guards entered the room and grabbed him by the arms. “I’m going to make sure every company in this industry knows exactly why you left here.”

Julian tried to resist, screaming as they dragged him towards the exit.

“You can’t do this to me! I have rights! I am valuable!”

His screams faded as they led him out through the same double doors that Marcus had entered.

The door closed.

The silence that remained was different this time.

It was a respectful silence.

Scary.

Comprehension.

Marcus took off his jacket and put it over Elena’s shoulders, covering the wine stain.

“Shall we go?” he asked gently.

—Yes —she replied.

They walked towards the exit.

Nobody moved.

Nobody said a word.

Just before leaving, Elena stopped and looked back at the tables full of terrified executives.

—Enjoy your dinner— she said with a calm smile. —It’s on the house.

And with that, they left.

Outside, the cool night air had never felt so good.

Julian had lost everything in five minutes: his job, his money, his reputation, and his future.

He had sealed his fate the moment he believed that his position gave him the right to trample on another human being.

Elena got into the luxury car that was waiting for them, with her head held high.

That night they learned a lesson they would never forget:

You never know who you’re dealing with.

And karma, sometimes, doesn’t wait for the afterlife.

Sometimes, he walks in the front door in a tailored suit and snatches away everything you thought was yours.

Justice served.