My brother sent me to the kids’ table at his wedding and whispered, “Don’t ruin the image,” but everything changed when the billionaire boss he wanted to impress sat next to me and shattered his humiliation.

“Shouldn’t you go back to your bride now?” Xavier asked him in a voice that was soft but incredibly sharp. Jeffrey muttered a response and hurried away while the rest of the guests watched him with newfound pity.

The rest of the evening was a complete reversal of power as the waiters began bringing the finest champagne and desserts to Table Nineteen. People who had ignored me for years suddenly found reasons to walk past our corner and offer me their business cards.

Xavier and I spent the next two hours discussing the memoir he wanted me to write and his desire to keep the narrative authentic and human. “Don’t let the marketing team turn your life into a corporate brand,” I advised him.

“That is exactly why you are the only one I trust to do this,” he replied as Parker asked him to add more fire to the dragon’s mouth. Eventually, the ceremony ended and I could see that Jeffrey’s confidence had been completely shattered.

When it was time for Xavier to leave, he stood up and told me that he wanted to discuss the new book contract immediately. “I am thinking of starting at double your current rate with a significant bonus for the launch,” he stated.

I told him that sounded like a perfect arrangement and we began walking toward the exit together. Jeffrey tried to intercept us one last time with a crooked tie and a desperate look in his eyes.

“Cassidy, wait, I truly didn’t know about your work,” he pleaded while trying to act like it was all just a sibling misunderstanding. Xavier looked at him with a coldness that made the air feel heavy and told him that the problem was not his lack of knowledge.

“The problem is that you never cared to see her value because you were too busy looking at yourself,” Xavier said. He then told Jeffrey to bring a box to the office on Monday because his position at Vanguard Tech was no longer secure.

Jeffrey stood there in total silence as his world crumbled around him on what was supposed to be his biggest night. We walked out into the cool night air and I felt a sense of peace that I had not known in a very long time.

Xavier mentioned that he was not actually going to fire my brother but was instead transferring him to a small regional office in the Midwest. “He needs to learn how to value people based on their character rather than their status,” he explained.