Riley's POV
The room doesn’t explode after my words.
It freezes.
Every single person left in the boardroom stares at me like I just dropped a bomb in the middle of the table. Mouths hang open. Eyes widen. Hands grip chairs. No one speaks. No one breathes properly.
I stand there, shoulders straight, fingers clenched slightly at my sides, watching their reactions one by one. Some of them look scared. Some look impressed. Some look like they want to disappear through the floor.
And then Ethan laughs.
He throws his head back and laughs loudly, sharply, like something inside him finally snapped. The sound fills the boardroom and echoes off the walls, and the longer he laughs, the more uncomfortable everyone becomes.
A woman two seats away from him flinches.
One of the investors glances
