He Gave His Intern My Masterpiece, So I Made His Empire My Own.

Chapter 4 The Machine Stops

(Julian's POV)

A hard c***k rang through the climate-controlled cutting workshop. The machine screamed and ground to a halt. Alarms started, washing the technicians' faces in red light.

I pushed through the double doors and felt something crunch under my custom Italian loafers. Diamond fragments, some as large as my thumb, covered the polished concrete. The stone had been the centerpiece of the Starlight Collection, a flawless 150-carat blue diamond from the De Beers private vault. It was worth eight figures.

It was now in pieces.

"What happened?" I shouted.

Chloe crouched beside the silent laser cutter, sobbing. "I don't know! I loaded the file she left and ran the sequence like I was supposed to. Then it shattered!"

I shoved past a technician and checked the control panel. Error codes filled the screen. The laser intensity was far too high, and the pressure points were misaligned. Someone had altered the parameters. All I could see then was Chloe's failure to catch it.

"You idiot." I turned on her. "You didn't even verify the parameters?"

"It was Elena's file!" She pointed at the monitor. "She left it corrupted! She did this to me!"

Elena. This was her revenge, expensive and precise. I could contain it. I always contained things.

My head of security led Chloe out while my personal phone rang. The screen showed *K. Botha, Johannesburg*. Kobus controlled my access to the best raw stones in the world.

"Kobus." I kept my voice even. "Good to hear from you."

"I wish I could say the same, Julian. I saw the press release. The *Starlight Collection*, designed by an intern?"

"A talented newcomer. She has my full confidence."

Kobus gave a short laugh. "Your confidence means nothing to me. My contract and my *trust* were with Elena Vance. I invested in her eye and her genius. We don't back amateurs playing with adult toys. Our partnership is terminated, effective immediately."

The line went dead.

I stared at the phone while the workshop alarms kept sounding behind me. One call had cut Sterling Jewelry off from its main supply of stones. The best raw stones had always arrived because Kobus trusted Elena's judgment. He had never been there for me.

My head of legal hurried into the workshop, white around the mouth.

"Julian, you need to see this." He thrust a thick envelope into my hands. It was from the federal court, delivered by a courier just minutes ago.

I tore it open and read the first page twice.

The plaintiff was *Elena Vance*.

She had filed for an emergency injunction covering the entire Starlight Collection on grounds of patent and copyright infringement.

The damages claimed came to *fifty million dollars*.

My grip tightened on the papers. The diamond, Kobus's call, and the injunction had landed one after another. Elena had planned this.

Then the anger hit. She thought she could destroy everything I had built after everything I had given her?

She was lashing out. Emotional people made mistakes, and I knew what she protected most: her privacy, her reputation, and her mother's legacy.

She had hidden our marriage for three years to protect that legacy.

I walked out of the workshop with my phone in hand. If she wanted a public fight, I would give her one.

First I would give her one chance to drop the lawsuit. If she refused, I would call a press conference and present her as an unstable, jealous wife attacking her husband's company after a separation. The public had believed worse about women for less.

By the time I finished, no one in the industry would listen to her.

I found her number and pressed call.