Chapter 169 Proposal

Chapter 169 Proposal
Michael POV

Lucas's expression cycled through disbelief, fury, and something that looked almost like betrayal. "This... what the hell is happening?" he demanded, his voice hoarse.

I reached behind me for the remote control, pressing the button to lower the mirror panel. The glass slid down smoothly, revealing the adjoining room we'd prepared for this exact moment.

Lucas's head snapped toward the new view, and all the color drained from his face.

There sat the real Natalie, bound to a metal chair with her mouth gagged by a cloth, but she managed to look absolutely livid.

Chris stood beside her, looking remarkably pleased with himself. He waved cheerfully at us through the glass. "Hey there! How'd the mask and voice modulator work out? Pretty convincing, right?"

Sarah smiled, her natural voice returning now that the voice modulator was gone. "Very convincing. Your tech guy definitely deserves a raise."

I watched Lucas process this revelation, his mind clearly scrambling to understand how completely he'd been played. Sarah stepped closer to him, and I positioned myself slightly behind her—protective instinct, even though Lucas was securely restrained.

"The news was fake, Lucas," Sarah said, her voice clear. "Michael and I never divorced. We staged this entire performance to flush out the real culprits."

I nodded, maintaining a professional demeanor. "Every headline is all fabricated. Amazing what you can accomplish when you have the right media connections."

"And the funeral?" Lucas's voice cracked slightly.

"Empty coffin," Sarah said simply. "Lily was safely at home the entire time, probably wondering why she couldn't go to school for a few days."

I found myself admiring Sarah's composure. She stood calm and resolute, every inch the CEO's wife she'd become.

"And we gave you both quite the show with our little revenge plot," Sarah continued. "Though I have to admit, the real stroke of genius was the counter-intelligence operation. We caught Natalie first, and she immediately gave up your name. Your mutual suspicion and paranoia did most of our work for us."

"You were so busy trying to outmaneuver each other," I added, "you walked right into our trap. Classic divide-and-conquer strategy."

Lucas's composure finally cracked completely. His face crumpled, and suddenly he looked less like a calculating manipulator and more like a desperate old man.

"Sarah... sweetie, I know you're angry, but I'm still your father. I made mistakes, terrible mistakes, but can't you find it in your heart to forgive me? We're family."

The word 'family' seemed to hit Sarah. I saw her shoulders tense, and I had to resist the urge to step forward and shield her from this pathetic display.

"You want forgiveness?" Sarah's voice remained steady, though I could hear the pain underneath. "You blamed Michael and me for Shane's accident. You wanted to make us suffer the way you suffered, but Lucas, have you ever considered that this might be your own fault? Maybe if you had let Shane donate his kidney to Sloane from the beginning, none of this would have happened."

"That's not—"

"You let grief turn you into something monstrous," Sarah interrupted, and I felt a surge of pride at her strength. "I'm disappointed in you. And no, I won't forgive you. Not for what you put my family through."

I watched Lucas's face transform. "You self-righteous little bitch! You think you're better than me? You think your precious CEO husband gives a damn about you?"

The words made my jaw clench, but Sarah barely flinched. They just rolled off her like water.

I gestured to Chris through the glass, who moved to remove the gag from Natalie's mouth. But before he could complete the action, I turned back to Lucas with a slight smile. "Oh, by the way, Lucas," I said conversationally, "Natalie over there heard every single word you just said. I think you two need to have a good talk."

The moment Chris freed her mouth, Natalie exploded like a pressure cooker. "You absolute fool! Why can't you just shut the fuck up?"

"I shut up?" Lucas snarled back, twisting in his restraints. "Would I be here if you hadn't been caught for some damn reason and then spilled my name?"

"Oh, so now this is my fault? If you had any brains, you would have come up with a better plan!"

"Both of you failed spectacularly," I observed mildly, enjoying the show.

Sarah tugged on my sleeve. "Let's leave them to it. They have a lot to discuss."

We slipped out of the observation room while Natalie and Lucas continued their mutual destruction. The soundproofed walls muffled their voices, but through the glass, we could see them spitting wildly at each other.

"So," Sarah said as we walked down the hallway, "Lucas mentioned that Natalie was behind my car accident. Is that actually true?"

"Should be easy enough to verify. We'll have another conversation with Heather and Caleb."

As I predicted, breaking the two took less than an hour.

When we informed them that Natalie had been arrested and charged, their remaining resistance crumbled completely. Faced with the reality that their supposed protector was powerless, they confessed everything.

According to their testimony, Natalie's father had approached them after Sarah woke up from the accident. He offered to pay Heather's medical bills and Caleb's outstanding loans in exchange for taking responsibility. They'd agreed immediately—fifty thousand dollars each seemed like a fortune at the time.

With their statements, the DA moved swiftly. Natalie's pharmaceutical empire collapsed within days—federal investigators uncovered years of illegal drug trials and FDA violations, some of which I had discovered and provided to them. Lucas's winery survived, but its market value plummeted seventy percent.

Justice, it turned out, was remarkably efficient when you had sufficient evidence.

Three weeks later, I was adjusting my tie in a television studio, preparing for the most important performance of my life.

"Are you sure about this?" Sarah asked for the third time. "Going on national television seems..."

"Like the perfect way to set the record straight," I finished. "Trust me."

The interview proceeded smoothly. Professional questions about the fabricated news, our legal strategy, and the impact on our family. Sarah spoke eloquently about forgiveness and justice, about grief and transformation.

"The most important thing," she said near the end, "is that our family is safe and whole. Everything else is just noise."

"Well, almost whole," I said, standing suddenly.

Sarah looked confused. "What do you mean?"

This was it. The moment I'd been planning for weeks.

"I mean that I owe my wife a proper proposal. The real kind, not the simple ceremony we rushed into."

I dropped to one knee right there on live television, pulling out the ring I'd had custom-designed, something that captured starlight.

"Sarah Martinez, you are the bravest, most incredible woman I've ever known. You've made me a better man, a better father, a better everything. Will you marry me again? Properly this time, with all our family watching?"

The coordinated rose ceremony began exactly as planned. Starting from the back row, red roses passed from person to person until a massive bouquet reached the front.

"Every flower represents a blessing," I said, my voice thick with genuine emotion. "Sarah, you deserve all the love in the world."

Sarah stared at the roses and the smiling audience, and tears began streaming down her face.

"This... these people are all here for us?" she whispered.

"Sarah, you deserve all the love in the world," I repeated. "Today, everyone here witnesses our truth. You're not just my wife—you're the symbol of real love for everyone watching."

"Did you hire all these people?" she asked between sobs.

I grinned. "I didn't hire anyone. I just asked a favor as a husband who wanted to share our love story. Turns out a lot of people believe in real love."

She pretended to glare at me through her tears. "Don't you ever surprise me like this again. My heart can't take it."

"This is absolutely the last time," I promised, sweeping her up in my arms.

The audience erupted as I carried her toward the exit, rose petals somehow falling around us like confetti. Sarah buried her face in my shoulder, and I felt our future stretching out before us, bright and full of promise.