BETRAYED ONCE: FROM NOTHING TO BILLIONIARE POWER

Chapter 5: Video

Harrison pushed the envelope across the table. "He recorded this six months ago, when he knew he didn't have much time. He made me promise and swear that I would find you and make you watch it. Not before he died but after. He said you needed to hear it from him, but not until he couldn't answer questions anymore."

Ryan's hand hovered over the envelope. "What does it say?"

"I don't know. I never watched it. That was his instruction." Harrison reached into his jacket again and pulled out a phone. "But I have it here. If you want to see."

The diner noise faded.

The clatter of plates. The hiss of the grill. The murmur of other conversations. The waitress asked another table if they wanted more coffee. All of it disappeared. There was only the envelope, the phone, and the ghost of a man Ryan had spent nineteen years hating.

He should say no and walk away. He should keep his dignity, his anger, and his mother's face. Alone in that hospital bed, waiting for a son who never came because he was working for people who would later bury him alive.

Ryan reached for the phone, and the screen lit up. A single folder appeared, labeled with no name. With a sigh he opened it to see the video. He clicked on it, and a man appeared. Old and weak, with his eyes sunken from illness and skin gray in a way that spoke of too many hospital rooms and not enough time.

The shape of the man's face told him everything. Ryan saw himself there, the same jaw, same eyes, and same way of holding his mouth when he was about to say something difficult.

"Ryan."

The voice cracked. The man on screen swallowed and gathered himself.

Ryan felt his body still at the voice of his father, and memories came rushing back.

"If you're watching this, I'm gone, and you're alive. Harrison found you. I prayed he would."

Ryan's grip on the phone tightened.

"I know you hate me, and you have every right. I walked out when you were six years old, and I never came back. I never explained; I never gave you anything but absence and silence and questions that would never be answered."

The man on screen wiped his eyes.

"I need you to know it wasn't because I didn't love you. It was because I did, too much to let them kill you."

Ryan's breath caught.

"The Volkov family. You've never heard that name, but they've controlled my life for nineteen years. They are dangerous people who I got mixed up with before you were born, and by the time I tried to get out, it was too late. They threatened your mother and you. They said if I didn't cooperate, didn't marry into the family, and didn't give them everything I had, they'd take you both."

The man's voice broke.

"So I left. I let you think I was a coward, a deadbeat, a man who didn't care. It was the only way to keep you safe. I married a woman I didn't love, joined a family I hated, and spent nineteen years watching you from a distance. Every birthday. Every graduation, every moment I missed, I saw it. Through photos. Through reports. Through Harrison, who was the only person I could trust."

Ryan's eyes burned. He blinked, but the tears didn't fall.

"I built Aether Corporation from nothing. You know why? For you. Every brick, every deal, every late night—it was all for you. A company I could give you someday. A weapon you could use. Because the Volkovs aren't just criminals, Ryan. They're inside everything now: legitimate businesses, corporate boards, and even the companies you've worked for."

Ryan's blood went cold.

‘Zhou Industries.’

The name hit like a bullet.

"They own Zhou. Not on paper, never on paper. The Volkovs control that family and have been doing so for years. Every deal Zhou makes, every contract they sign, it's all feeding the Volkov machine: smuggling, money laundering, and even worse.

The man on screen leaned closer, desperate. "And now Zhou is trying to buy Aether."

Ryan's mind raced. ‘Aether, Zhou, the deal,’

"They don't know about you and didn't know you exist. Harrison made sure of that. But if they acquire Aether, everything I built becomes theirs. Another weapon for the family that destroyed us."

The man's eyes locked on the camera.

"You're the only one who can stop them."

Silence.

"I know you don't owe me anything. I know I have no right to ask. But I'm not asking if I'm dead. I'm asking for your mother. For the life she deserved and never got. For the future they stole from both of you."

Ryan watches in silence; to an extent, the screen finally becomes blurry. Tears rolled down his cheek.

"The company is yours if you want it. No strings, no obligations; Harrison will handle the paperwork. You can sell it, burn it, or give it away. I don't care. It's yours."

The man smiled. A sad, broken thing.

"But if you choose to fight, you won't be alone. Harrison has files, evidence, names, and everything I gathered over the past years. Everything they'd kill to destroy."

"I love you, son; I always did, and I'm sorry I couldn't say it while I was alive."

The screen went blank, but Ryan's eyes still panned across it, watching nothing but tears drop on the table.