Twilight Romance: Flash Marriage to Mature Tycoon – Episode 25
The document traced the disputed shares to a trust created during Ray and Summer’s marriage. Summer claimed the divorce decree divided property incorrectly because her signature had been absent. Even if the argument ultimately failed, an injunction could prevent Ray from voting the shares at the emergency meeting.
Ray’s attorneys worked through the night. Jocelyn remained at the kitchen table with him, reading summaries and making coffee. She could not solve corporate law, but her presence steadied the room in a way teams of experts could not.
Near dawn, Ray urged her to sleep. Jocelyn said she had spent years sitting beside sick children and frightened employers; she knew how to remain when leaving would be easier. The words were not forgiveness, but they were no longer rejection.
Violet slept on the sofa between them, unwilling to go upstairs while her family’s future was debated. Ray covered her with a blanket. Jocelyn watched the tenderness in his hands and wondered how Summer had walked away from both of them.
At eight, the attorneys delivered bad news. A judge had temporarily frozen the disputed shares until a hearing. Ray would enter the boardroom without enough votes to guarantee his position.
He dressed in the suit Jocelyn had once seen only in a photograph. The transformation was striking, yet she no longer believed the chairman and the man at her dinner table were separate. Power changed how others looked at him, not how carefully he adjusted Violet’s blanket.
Jocelyn straightened his tie. The gesture mirrored their first morning before the Mother’s Day party, except now both knew exactly who stood before them. “Do not surrender because of me,” she said. Ray promised only that he would not surrender her.
At Astor headquarters, directors filled the long boardroom. Summer sat at the far end wearing white, as if staging a second wedding through corporate procedure. She offered Ray one final private settlement before the vote.
He refused to leave the room with her. Summer stated her terms openly: restore her marital status publicly, appoint her to the board, and the trust would support him. Several directors shifted uncomfortably as her personal coercion became impossible to ignore.
Ray addressed the board. He accepted responsibility for the scandal caused by hiding his identity from Jocelyn but rejected the idea that private extortion should govern a public company. He presented asset sales and restructuring plans capable of replacing the trust within six months.
The plan required sacrifice and carried risk. Summer promised immediate stability. Fear divided the directors almost evenly.
Jocelyn waited outside with Violet. Employees gathered in the lobby, watching financial news and whispering about layoffs. A woman in a site uniform recognized Jocelyn and asked whether Ray truly intended to sell his homes before cutting jobs.
Jocelyn confirmed that he did. The worker said Ray had once visited her injured husband in the hospital without cameras or publicity. More employees began sharing similar stories. The empire Jocelyn feared destroying was held together by loyalties Summer’s balance sheets did not measure.
Violet suggested they make those voices heard. Jocelyn hesitated to interfere in a board process she barely understood. Then she remembered how often silence had allowed cruel people to define reality.
She asked the employees to write statements about what Astor Group meant to their families. Within minutes, messages arrived from sites across the state. Violet used the company’s internal platform to organize them into a live petition supporting Ray’s restructuring plan.
Inside, the preliminary vote tied. One undecided director prepared to support Summer, arguing that workers required certainty. The board secretary interrupted with news that thousands of employees had signed a statement accepting temporary delays rather than leadership obtained through coercion.
The director requested to hear from the petition’s organizer. Jocelyn entered the boardroom with Violet beside her. Every face turned toward the former maid now standing at the center of Astor power.
Summer accused her of manipulating employees. Jocelyn answered that she had promised them nothing and asked them only to speak. “People are not numbers to be frightened into obedience,” she said. “They are the company you claim to be saving.”
The undecided director changed his vote. Ray remained chairman by a single seat. Summer’s expression went still as defeat settled across the table.
Before security escorted her out, Summer leaned toward Jocelyn. “Enjoy your victory,” she whispered. “By tonight, Ray will learn that saving his company cost him the one person you love more than him.” Jocelyn’s phone rang, and Harry’s terrified voice said Caleb had disappeared.