All Chapters of THE MAN THEY TRIED TO ERASE: Chapter 111
- Chapter 120
164 chapters
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The morning sun looked almost mocking as it spilled across the polished marble floors of Callahan Group’s headquarters. From the outside, everything appeared pristine—glass gleaming, employees briskly moving, the name CALLAHAN emblazoned in gold like an untouchable legacy.But Finn felt the tremor beneath it all.Ruth’s death had shaken the company to its bones. Shawn’s appearance had driven a knife straight into the spine of Finn’s life. The board was restless. Investors were whispering. Daniella and Hans were feeding the media hourly.And behind all of it, Finn could see the smoke of something bigger—a storm he didn’t yet understand.He pressed his hand against the elevator rail, jaw tight. Audrey stood beside him, tablet in hand, pretending not to stare.“You didn’t sleep,” she said quietly.“I didn’t have anything worth dreaming about,” Finn replied.Audrey exhaled through her nose, her voice dropping lower. “Shawn got into your head that badly?”Finn didn’t respond. Not because s
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The city was still waking up when Finn stepped out of the apartment building, the cold morning air biting at the edges of his coat. His jaw was tight, his mind sharper than the wind cutting through the grey skyline. After everything he uncovered last night—Shawn’s provocations, Audrey’s trembling confession, and the subtle cracks appearing in every corner of Callahan Group—today felt like a ticking bomb.The black sedan waited at the curb. Henry wasn't driving today—too many assignments from Albrecht’s side, too many eyes trailing Finn. Instead, Ruth’s old replacement driver sat behind the wheel. A quiet man. Polite. Forgettable. Finn barely remembered his name.But today that forgettable man smiled too warmly.“Morning, Mr. Hargrove,” the driver said, stepping out to open the back door for him.Finn slid into the car but didn’t return the smile. Something in the air felt wrong—he couldn’t place it, but it coiled tight in his stomach.“We’re heading to the corporate office,” Finn said
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Finn didn’t breathe for three long seconds.The alley behind the industrial block was silent except for the faint dripping of water from a broken gutter. The masked man stood motionless, one hand still holding the phone, the other resting casually at his side as if he hadn’t just tried to corner the most dangerous man in the city.“Second heir?” Finn muttered under his breath. “What game is this bastard playing now?”The masked man didn’t respond. He simply watched Finn with rigid discipline—no tension, no hesitation. These weren’t street thugs. They were trained.Which meant Shawn wasn’t bluffing about having connections.Finn stepped forward. “Tell him I’m not interested in his little riddles.”The masked man didn’t move.Finn’s jaw tightened. “Move. Or I’ll move you.”The man finally shook his head.Not refusing.Warning.A low hum echoed from behind Finn. An engine. Fast.Finn spun just in time to see a black car turning into the alley—no headlights, windows tinted, moving too qui
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The elevator doors slid open with a cold chime, and Finn stepped out into the executive floor of Callahan Group. His breath was still uneven from the chaos with the driver. His knuckles bruised. His jaw tight. Every nerve in his body thrummed as if it hadn’t yet realized he was no longer fighting.The receptionist froze when she saw him. “Mr. Callahan… are you alright?”Finn didn’t slow. “Get Security to sweep the garage. And bring me the head of Internal Compliance in ten minutes.”“Yes, sir.”He walked through the marble hallway like a storm wearing a suit. A few directors caught glimpses of him and instantly pretended to look busy. Finn didn’t care; their whispers would come later. Right now, all he wanted was to reach his office and—He stopped.Someone was standing in front of his door.A woman. Young—twenty-eight or twenty-nine at most—leaning one shoulder against the glass wall like she owned the air around her. Long dark hair cascading over a black fitted blazer. No jewelry ex
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The emergency meeting room was already packed when Finn pushed the doors open.Directors, shareholders, legal advisors—more than twenty people sat around the long obsidian table. The moment Finn walked in, the room shifted like a single animal that sensed danger closing in. Eyes darted. Papers shuffled. A few cleared their throats as if trying to hide their nervousness.At the end of the table sat Martin Graves—acting Chairman of the Board—gray-haired, bony, and infamous for smiling in a way that never reached his eyes.He didn’t smile now.“Mr. Callahan,” Graves said, voice smooth as old velvet. “We’ve been expecting you.”Finn stepped forward. “I heard the board issued a statement demanding my removal. Care to explain why you think you have that authority?”Several directors exchanged glances, but no one spoke until Graves leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers neatly.“Given the… unfortunate media storm surrounding you… and the uncertainty in the government contract, we’re for
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Finn didn’t drive straight to the address Shawn sent.He spent a full hour pacing the length of his penthouse living room—hands on his head, jaw clenched, body trembling between rage and confusion. The city skyline glittered outside, mocking him with calmness while chaos crawled under his skin.Ruth.Shawn.The “real will.”It felt like being pulled back into the asylum—dark corridors, whispers, a world where nothing could be trusted.A knock sounded at the door.Finn turned sharply.Valerie stepped in without waiting for permission. Her expression was stern, sharp, edged with something like concern—though she would never admit it.“You kept pacing for an hour,” she said. “I assumed you weren’t handling this well.”Finn huffed bitterly. “Handling what well? That everything I fought for might be built on a lie?” He grabbed a glass, poured whiskey, and downed it in one breath. “Or that Ruth—Ruth—might have planned something I never even knew about?”Valerie shut the door behind her. “St
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Finn didn’t move at first.The words you stole hung in the air like a blade pressed to his throat. A cold pulse shot down his spine, and for a moment he forgot how to breathe. The warehouse felt smaller, the light harsher, and Shawn’s presence heavier.He forced his voice steady—barely.“I didn’t steal anything.”Shawn lifted one brow. “Didn’t you?”“I married Ruth,” Finn said sharply. “She chose me.”“Yes,” Shawn said, stepping casually into the circle of light. “But people choose many things, Finn. Doesn’t mean they tell you the whole story.”Finn’s jaw tightened. “Where is she? Her daughter.”Shawn smiled softly, almost pitying. “Impatient as always.”Outside, Valerie inched closer to the half-open door, staying in the shadows. She didn’t hear every word, but she caught enough to sense danger tightening around Finn like a noose.Shawn continued, “Before I introduce you, I want to hear your answer.”Finn glared. “My answer to what?”“To the question I asked you.” Shawn’s voice dropp
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Finn sat alone in the glass-walled conference chamber, the kind reserved only for board-level crises or government interventions. From the outside, employees passed by with stolen glances—some tense, some curious, some eager to see a spectacle. Word spread like wildfire through the building:Nadia Voss is interrogating Finn Hargrove.The lights were too bright. The air too cold. The silence too sharp.Finn crossed his arms over his chest, pretending calm, pretending confidence—but inside, he was calculating. Every second. Every breath.Ruth was dead.Audrey was in danger.Shawn was lying about something.And now Nadia, with her immaculate suit and predatory patience, was circling him like a wolf.The door clicked.Nadia Voss stepped inside with the grace of a woman who’d destroyed a dozen men before breakfast. She closed the door quietly, placed a single folder on the table, and sat across from him.“Finn,” she said, voice soft, almost soothing, “thank you for waiting.”Finn met her e
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The moment Finn stepped into the glass-walled lobby, the air felt unnaturally heavy, as if the entire building recognized the tension he carried after days of sleepless paranoia and quiet rage. The automated lights shifted subtly as he walked, responding to the biometric system embedded in the Callahan Group’s architectural core—a system Ruth designed decades ago, one that still registered Finn as its rightful heir despite the chaos tearing the corporation apart.His footsteps echoed across the polished obsidian tiles, and he sensed immediately that he was not alone. A pulse of hostility brushed against him like static electricity, the subtle pressure of an aura signature—an imprint Finn had learned to read ever since the “Threshold” incident awakened his perceptive abilities. It was Shawn. Of course it was Shawn.Shawn stood near the reception desk with a posture that radiated deliberate arrogance, one hand casually tucked into the pocket of his tailored navy coat while the other hel
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The conference room on the thirty-seventh floor felt colder than usual, as though the building had lowered its internal temperature to mirror the tension swirling inside Finn’s restless mind. The walls, normally humming with the soft blue pulse of the system panels installed by Ruth years ago, flickered with slower rhythms today, almost as if the structure sensed the weight of what Finn, Nadia, and Henry were about to uncover.Finn stood over the massive oval table scattered with Ruth’s old documents—receipts, financial spreadsheets, handwritten notes, corporate ledgers, and encrypted archives that still bore Ruth’s personal signature code, a shimmering silver glyph that danced across the surface whenever touched. Nadia worked beside him with relentless focus, her hands moving quickly yet carefully, while Henry sat near the far end of the table with three monitors streaming decrypted files Rowan had temporarily unlocked. No one spoke for several minutes; they were all too aware of how