DOCTOR’S LEGACY

Chapter 3

Richard couldn’t believe this was happening to him. He had sacrificed his knowledge, his career..everything..for the family and their company. 

Because he loved Fiona so much, he gave up his own ambitions, became her husband, and devoted himself entirely to supporting her career. And now they were discarding him for it.

Thinking back, he realized what a fool he had been. But he wouldn’t back down. Pointing at them, he said, “Everything you’ve achieved in this family comes down to me! Even tonight’s celebration happened because of me. Yet you stand by my wife’s cheating and shame me openly!”.

Mr. Collins scoffed, his tone dripping with disdain. “This is what I love about poor people. You give them hope, and they’ll do anything for you. Look, Fiona’s cheating didn’t start today…we’ve been at it for a long time! We only used you for your brain and your knowledge. That’s it. You never mattered. To me, you were nothing but an asset, and now your usefulness is over.”

The words nearly drove Richard mad. So they had been using him all this time. Fiona had only been the bait to capture him, to drain his knowledge, to build their empire. And to them, that’s all he was..just a commodity.

Richard’s blood boiled, his fists clenching so tightly his knuckles cracked. He shouted back, “You dare shame me like this? After everything I have given, after everything I have built for you? You think you can strip me of dignity and walk away untouched?”.

Mrs. Johnson sneered, her words cutting like a blade. “My daughter deserves better than a fool like you, Richard. You were lucky she ever even looked at you.”

And then, Fiona appeared. Standing beside the man, her lips curled into a mocking smile. Richard’s chest tightened, his breath catching at the sight. That smile, once his source of comfort, now mocked his very existence.

“You… you will regret this,” he growled. “I swear, I will drag your name through filth. I will make sure every investor here sees your scandal, your corruption, your shameless betrayal!”

Mr. Collins sneered back. “I dare you, Richard! Do that, and I will kill you where you stand!”

Richard only smiled, the kind of smile that promised madness. He was losing it. 

“Okay,” he said calmly, then stormed to the center of the hall. He climbed onto a table, shoving glasses and plates aside, the sound of shattering crystal pulling every eye toward him.

“Hey, all of you!” he roared, his voice echoing across the stunned ballroom. 

“Do you want to know who the Collins family truly is? They are manipulators, dangerous liars, wicked at their core! They are celebrating tonight on the back of my knowledge and my discoveries. Even the so-called breakthrough cure for stage two cancer, the very reason for this gathering, I discovered it!”.

Gasps rippled through the crowd. Someone shouted, “What? Is that true?”.

Another voice, skeptical but shaken, said, “This is unreal…”.

Richard pointed directly at Fiona, his voice breaking with anguish. 

“That woman..my wife, was in the restroom tonight, cheating with another man while I stood here like a fool celebrating with her family. And her mother, her lover, Mr. Collins himself…they all support it! They have confessed to using me, to draining me of everything I am. They never saw me as family, only as a tool. They are untrustworthy!”.

The crowd erupted in murmurs. One man shouted, “Really? The Collins family did this? That’s insane! Is this true?”.

“This call for termination!”.

And then, from the edge of the room, the man Richard had caught with Fiona stepped forward, his face flushed with anger. He raised his voice above the noise, “And you will believe this lunatic?”.