All Chapters of Shattered Mask: Chapter 31
- Chapter 40
79 chapters
CHAPTER 31
THE COUNTDOWN IS ON Leslie stood frozen, the coldness of his rejection stinging worse than any shout or insult. She looked at his retreating back, at the grey uniform that now felt like a shroud. She had come here expecting a servant she could manipulate, but she had found a wall she couldn't climb.She turned and walked back to her car, her shoulders slumped, the realisation finally sinking in that the bridge she had hoped to cross had already been burnt to the waterway. She drove away from the mansion, her vision blurred by tears of frustration and fear, feeling the weight of the city closing in on her.As the gates hissed shut behind her, Jack stopped his work. He pulled the cap from his head and tossed the leopard chamois cloth onto the hood of the car. He looked towar
CHAPTER 32
A CRUMBLING KINGDOMShe began to map out the logistics of the move. She would contact the private buyer for the house...a man who dealt in "distressed" assets and didn't ask questions. She would authorise the liquidation of the catering equipment through a third-party auctioneer in Jersey. The cash from the bank, combined with whatever she could skim from the fire sale, would be enough to sustain them in the suburban apartment for a year.It was a humiliating descent, a fall from the heights of Manhattan society to the anonymity of the working class, but it was a survival strategy. She clung to one last sliver of hope: Martin Harnes.She had convinced herself that Harnes was still working on the "Heir" for her. She believed that his silence was merely the silence of a busy man brokering a complex peace. She would move to the apartment, she would hide, and she would wait for the call that told her the "Heir" had shown mercy. In her mind, she wasn't losing; she was just relocating her
CHAPTER 33
TIME TO ESCAPEShe leaned back in her high-backed leather chair, the same chair where she had once dictated terms to the city's elite. Now, it felt like a throne of ash. She stared at the ceiling, her mind replaying the last four years. She thought of Jack, the man who had quietly moved through these halls, invisible and ignored. She thought of how she had mocked his poverty while her own wealth was nothing more than a loan he was unknowingly securing with his presence.The irony was a physical pain in her chest. She had spent her life chasing Big People, only to realise she had been the smallest person in the room all along."Zero," she whispered to the empty study. "Everything Arthur built. Everything I protected. It is just... zero."She sat in the gathering shadows of the afternoon, the house around her feeling larger and colder with every passing second. She was a woman of immense pride, and that pride was now the only thing left to burn. She thought of Leslie, out there som
CHAPTER 34
RIGHT AFTER ALL: WAITING FOR THE CALL"It doesn't matter, Mom.""What do you mean it doesn't matter?""I saw Robert this morning," Leslie said, her voice dropping into a flat, toneless drone. "He is packing his own bags. He is planning his own escape. He talked about 'rebounds' and 'mergers', but he never mentioned us. He never asked where we would go if the house were seized. He was already looking for a studio in the Bronx, already looking for a way to save his own skin. He didn't include us in his plan, Mom. Not once." Leslie said,Linda paused, the news of Robert’s independent betrayal settling over her like a heavy cloak. For a moment, a flash of genuine hurt crossed her face...the final betrayal of a man she had considered a peer...but it was quickly replaced by a cold, vindictive satisfaction."There it is, then," Linda said, her voice hardening. "The final proof of the world we live in. I was right after all. You were worried about fairness and loyalty, but Robert Williams
CHAPTER 35
THE CALL OF RELIEF"Mom, it Is ten in the morning," Leslie said, walking over to stand in her mother’s line of sight. "I checked the news on the way down. The Riverworth board has already authorised the private security team. Robert... he only has about two hours left. He is sitting in that apartment right now, waiting for a miracle. He thinks the Rothwells are going to revoke the deed at the last second. He thinks he is going to be reinstated. " Leslie said.Linda let out a short, dry puff of laughter. "Robert is a fool who believes in fairy tales. The Rothwells don't reinstate people, Leslie. They replace them. If Robert wants to sit in a chair while they carry it out from under him, that is his choice. We,
CHAPTER 36
A LOST MAN"Leave everything. We are not going to the apartment, Leslie. Harnes has arranged a meeting. The Heir wants to see us. He is at the Riverworth Tower, and he is waiting." Linda screamed in joyLeslie felt a wave of dizziness wash over her. "The Heir? We are going to see the Heir? What about Robert? What about the eviction?""Who cares about Robert!" Linda laughed, a sharp, hysterical sound. "If the Heir is meeting us, it means the deal is back on the table. It means Jack did his job. That little driver actually came through for us."She grabbed Leslie by the arm, pulling her toward the door. "Hurry. We cannot be late. This is the moment, Leslie. This is where we take back everything they tried to steal from us. This is where we finally meet the man who holds our lives in his hands." As they ran toward the car, leaving the front door of the mansion wide open to the morning air, Linda didn't see the black car parked at the end of the driveway. She didn't see the man in the
CHAPTER 37
A FRUSTRATED MANHe looked down at his shoes...thousand-dollar Italian loafers that were never meant for the pavement of a public road. He had no car. He had no money. He had no friends left in this district. The only harbour left in the storm was the Smith family. They were his partners. They were his future. He was the father of Leslie’s child. Surely, they were waiting for him."They must have been blocked too," he reasoned, his mind twisting the reality to protect his ego. "The Rothwells cut their lines. They are probably frantic, wondering where I am. I just have to get there. We will regroup. We will use Linda’s apartment, at least for the time being." He thought to himself
Last Updated : 2026-03-21
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CHAPTER 38
THE TWO MENThe house, stripped of its life and its servants, felt like a hollowed-out monument to a dead civilisation. Robert Williams sat on the cold floor of the lobby, his back against a mahogany pillar that had once held a million-dollar house He was a broken man, his expensive suit stained with the salt of sweat and the dust of a five-mile walk.The silence was absolute until the heavy front door squeaked on its hinges.A young man stepped into the light, his designer backpack slung over one shoulder, his face a mask of youthful confusion. It was Bernard, Linda’s youngest and the golden boy of the Smith family. He had just arrived from his elite university for the mid-semester vacation, expecting the usual fanfare...the smell of a five-course meal, the doting attention of his mother, and the quiet hum of a house in peak operation.Instead, he found a tomb."Robert?" Bernard asked, his voice echoing through the empty hall. He dropped his bag, his eyes darting from the bare wall
CHAPTER 39
TIRED OF BEING TESTEDThe drive to the Rothwell Tower was the most energised Linda Smith had felt in forty-eight hours. The energy of a woman who had seen a fading light at the end of a very dark tunnel and convinced herself it was the sun. As she steered the car through the midtown traffic, she and Leslie acted like generals preparing for a final, decisive battle."We have to lead with the legacy," Linda commanded, her eyes fixed on the glass tower growing larger in the windscreen as they drove closer and closer. "We remind Harnes and the Heir that Arthur’s vision was the foundation. We don’t apologise for the divorce; we frame it as a strategic realignment that went sideways. In fact, it is not even raised there since our presence there will not be because of Jack.We will just ignore that and move straight to business.We tell them we are ready to merge the catering wing entirely into the Rothwell portfolio as a gesture of good faith.""And Jack?" Leslie asked, her voice tight
CHAPTER 40
READY TO BE SAVED"Mom, sit down," Leslie pleaded. "We have nowhere else to go. Vantage already pulled out. If we leave now, we go back to an empty house and a life of hiding. We have to wait." Leslie whispered to her"I won't be humiliated by a man who used to be my husband’s subordinate," Linda snapped. She marched toward the reception desk, her face flushed with a desperate, dying rage. "Listen to me. I don't care who is in that office. You go in there and you tell Martin Harnes that Linda Smith is leaving. If he wants to speak to me, he can find me at my lawyer’s office tomorrow morning." She said,The receptionist didn't look up from her screen. "The Chairman is very busy, Mrs Smith. Patience is a requirement for entrance into this firm." The receptionist said calmly"The Chairman?" Linda laughed, a jagged, hysterical sound. "I am here to see Harnes. Harnes isn't the Chairman, he is the lawyer posing as the chairman. I have had enough of this. Leslie, get your things. We ar