The atmosphere inside the grand ballroom of the Grand Sapphire Hotel had not completely recovered from the earlier commotion. Although Mr. Wijaya and Mrs. Ratna had been dragged out by security, quiet murmurs among the guests still rippled through the room.

Yet, the fragile peace did not last long.

SLAM!

The main doors were kicked open for a second time. This time, Mr. Wijaya, having completely lost his mind, had broken free from the security officers at the entrance. With a bruised face and disheveled clothes, he looked like a madman. He charged back into the center of the hall, stopping right in front of Aris, who was standing calmly on the podium.

"YOU!" Mr. Wijaya shrieked, his voice raw and shrill, drawing the eyes of everyone in the room. "Who do you think you are, huh?! Just a dirt-poor son-in-law freeloading off us! How dare you humiliate us in front of all these wealthy people?!"

Aris remained composed. He took a slow sip of his wine before setting the crystal glass on the table. "Mr. Wijaya, I suggest you leave before I call the police to press charges for public harassment."

"To hell with the police!" Mr. Wijaya spat, his trembling finger pointing at Aris in front of hundreds of eyes. "Listen to me, all of you! This man—the man you are all glorifying—is nothing but trash! He has nothing! A year ago, he couldn't even pay his own rent!"

A few quiet chuckles rippled through the crowd. Some guests looked at Aris with skeptical eyes, while others stared at Mr. Wijaya in disgust.

"Listen!" Mr. Wijaya continued, stumbling forward. "My company was ruined because he used dirty tricks! He's nothing but a fraud wearing an expensive suit to hide his poverty!"

Aris let out a long, quiet sigh. He glanced at Andi, who immediately gave a subtle signal to the audiovisual operator at the back of the hall.

"Do you really want to know who I am, Mr. Wijaya?" Aris's voice was low, smooth, and laced with an undeniable authority that instantly brought the entire ballroom to a standstill. "You are right. A year ago, I was indeed a man with nothing. I was simply a man trying to understand the true meaning of sincerity in a marriage."

Aris stepped down from the podium. "For a whole year, I lived under your roof. I washed the dishes, scrubbed your floors, and endured your daily abuse. I didn't do it because I was poor; I did it because I wanted to test one thing: Did you, as a father, possess even a shred of respect for the man struggling alongside your daughter?"

Aris signaled again, and the massive screen behind him flickered to life. It wasn't corporate financial charts or profit projections. The screen displayed old photographs. Pictures of Aris scrubbing the floors of the Wijaya mansion, pictures of him preparing breakfast while the family hurled insults at him, and pictures of him standing outside in the pouring rain after being kicked out.

Then, the images shifted.

There were photos of Aris in military dress uniform, photos of him receiving awards as a top young entrepreneur, and official registry documents of vast corporate assets—all registered under his name.

"My name is Aris Pratama," his voice boomed across the entire hall, loud and resonant. "Sole owner of Nexus Global, owner of Capital Group, and majority shareholder in ten of the largest construction firms in this country—including your company, which has now officially collapsed due to your own utter incompetence."

An absolute, suffocating silence descended upon the ballroom.

Mr. Wijaya’s mouth hung open. His face, once flushed red with rage, drained into a corpse-like white. His knees buckled, and he collapsed onto the cold marble floor.

"All the grandeur you see in this room," Aris continued, gesturing smoothly toward the stunned audience, "was not built on lies. It was built on the hard work that you spent an entire year dismissing as 'trash'."

Aris looked down at Mr. Wijaya, who now looked painfully small on the floor. "In the past, you used to tell me that I was a burden to the Wijaya family. But today, in front of every witness here, I want to say something I've wanted to say for a long time: The Wijayas were never a family to me. You were merely strangers who tried to destroy the only person I loved."

Up on the balcony, Bella’s legs gave out. The tears she had been desperately holding back fell uncontrollably. The man she had considered helpless and weak all this time had been carrying a burden of that magnitude alone. Every insult he swallowed every night, every harsh word from her mother—Aris had borne it all in silence.

"You threw me out because you thought I was poor," Aris said, casting a glance over the crowd before looking back down at Mr. Wijaya. "So now, in front of everyone here, I declare: Nexus Global will sever all business ties with any entity associated with the Wijaya name. You are no longer anyone in this city."

Mr. Wijaya tried to crawl forward, reaching out with a trembling hand to grasp Aris's foot, but security guards moved swiftly, seizing him and dragging him out of the room. There were no shouts this time. Mr. Wijaya looked like a man whose soul had been completely broken.

Once Mr. Wijaya vanished behind the heavy double doors, Aris turned back to his guests with a pleasant smile, as if no major drama had just unfolded.

"Shall we resume the party?" he said lightly.

Yet, no one could truly return to a relaxed party mood. Everyone in the room now stared at Aris with a mixture of profound awe and sheer terror. He wasn't just a billionaire; he was a man capable of orchestrating the utter ruin of those who wronged him with terrifying precision.

Aris stepped off the stage and walked through the crowd. Guests parted instantly to make way for him, bowing their heads as he passed. He ignored them all. His eyes were searching for only one person.

He looked up toward the balcony. There, Bella stood alone, staring down at him with a look filled with utter confusion and deep, agonizing pain.

Tonight, Aris's secret was out. The mask of poverty had been stripped away, and the brutal truth stood naked before the world. But for Aris, this felt nothing like a victory. It was the end of a chapter, and he was no longer sure if Bella would ever look at him the same way again.