2026-05-07 23:19:48James's jaw was so tight you could see the muscle twitching in his cheek from a distance.
He had been watching everything unfold with barely controlled fury building behind his eyes, trying to make sense of what he was seeing. The bow. The microphone. Hector standing at that podium like he belonged there. None of it was adding up and the parts that weren't adding up were making James angrier by the second. He was just about to step forward and say something when Hector's voice came through the microphone, calm and unhurried, filling every corner of the football pitch with effortless authority. “Well,” Hector began, a ghost of a smile playing at the corner of his mouth, “nothing is ever truly certain in this life. I'm sure you are all very surprised right now. Wondering why I'm standing here. Why I'm holding this microphone. Why any of this is happening the way it is happening.” He paused and let his eyes move slowly across the crowd. “I don't have any explanation to offer any of you. And quite frankly, I won't be offering one either.” His voice remained perfectly even, perfectly controlled. “Because not a single person standing in this pitch tonight deserves one from me.” The crowd stirred uncomfortably. But before Hector could say another word, James exploded. “SHUT YOUR MOUTH!” His voice tore through the atmosphere like a thunderclap. Every head snapped toward him as he stepped forward with his chest puffed out and his finger pointing straight at Hector like a loaded weapon. “Who gave you the right to stand up there and speak to us like that?! Who do you think you actually ARE?!” James's voice was shaking with rage now, the veins in his neck visible from several feet away. “We know where you come from! We know your background! We know exactly what you are and where you crawled up from! And you have the absolute nerve to stand at that podium and address US like you are somebody?!” He took another step forward, his expensive shoes cutting sharp against the ground. “DROP THAT MICROPHONE!” James bellowed. “Get off that podium RIGHT NOW before the representative from the Ross Corporation arrives to present MY cheque! You are standing up there talking absolute rubbish when people far more important than you will ever be are on their way here! GET OUT! Get off that stage and get out of my sight!” The crowd was completely frozen, watching James with a mixture of shock and something else. Something that looked almost like secondhand embarrassment. Hector simply looked at James for a long, quiet moment. Then he smiled. Not a nervous smile. Not an apologetic smile. The slow, unbothered smile of someone who is holding every card in the deck and has absolutely no reason to rush. “Calm down,” Hector said simply into the microphone. “Just calm down, James. Don't be faster than your shadow.” He tilted his head slightly. “Don't be faster than your shadow.” Something about the way he repeated it made several people in the crowd shift uncomfortably on their feet, like those words meant something they hadn't quite caught yet. “I'll be honest with you,” Hector continued, his voice conversational and unbothered. “I genuinely never knew it was going to be you. I never saw that coming.” James's chest swelled with satisfaction and arrogance in equal measure. A sharp, triumphant smile spread across his face as he squared his shoulders and looked around at the crowd like he was already holding the cheque in his hand. “Well now that you know,” James said, his voice dripping with contempt, “can you swallow it? Can you just get out of my face? Because I don't want to look at you for another single second.” His smile turned cold and razor sharp. “And let me tell you something else. The very FIRST thing I am going to do after they put that money in my hands is have you locked up. I'm going to find the most miserable cell in the most miserable prison and I am going to put you in it personally. I'll lock the door, throw away the key, and forget you ever existed.” He straightened his jacket with a sharp tug and looked Hector dead in the eyes. “And trust me, five hundred thousand dollars can absolutely make that happen. You'll be nothing but history.”
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Chapter 22
At that moment Sarah mind was no longer in the scene It had gone somewhere else entirely, racing backward through every moment, every decision, every turn she had taken over the past several months, replaying them all at a terrifying speed with brand new eyes.The announcer was still walking toward her but she barely registered it anymore.“How is Hector doing this?”The question was ricocheting around inside her skull like a trapped bird. How? How was any of this possible? Was there something she had missed? Some piece of the puzzle that had been sitting directly in front of her face the entire time that she had been too blind, too arrogant, too busy looking in the wrong direction to see?"Could it be true? Could what Hector announced actually be true?"She thought about the lottery cancellation. She had laughed at it. The entire crowd had laughed at it. But the announcer hadn't laughed. The announcer had bowed. And not a polite, performative bow either. A ninety degree bow of absol
Chapter 21
The moment those words left the announcer's mouth, something shifted completely in James Wesley.Every trace of arrogance, every ounce of confidence, every carefully constructed layer of superiority that he had been wearing all evening like an expensive suit it collapsed. All of it. At once.His voice came out trembling and thin, nothing like the commanding roar it had been just minutes ago.“I — I don't understand what is happening right now,” James stammered, taking a small involuntary step backward. “You are focusing on the wrong person. I am not the one you should be angry at.” He pointed a shaking finger at Hector, his hand no longer steady. “HIM. That man right there. That good for nothing bastard who has been standing up at that podium impersonating the Ross Corporation. I was the one trying to expose him! I was doing everyone here a favor! I was the only one with the courage to call him out and you are deflecting your anger onto me?” His voice cracked somewhere in the middl
Chapter 20
Hector didn't even blink at the laughter still rolling through the crowd.He simply waited for it to settle, his expression unchanged, his posture relaxed, his eyes carrying the quiet certainty of someone who has already said what needed to be said and has absolutely no interest in defending it.Then he raised the microphone one final time.“Since that has been established,” Hector said, his voice smooth and unhurried, cutting cleanly through the dying laughter like a blade through silk, “the lottery is cancelled. Effective immediately.”The laughter began to fade.“The twenty five million dollars will be placed on standby. It will not be awarded through a lottery draw. Not today. Not through this process.” He paused and let his eyes move slowly across the crowd. “I have come to the personal conclusion that lottery systems carry a fundamental flaw. Money of this magnitude can too easily fall into the wrong hands. Into the hands of people who have already announced, publicly and witho
Chapter 19
The laughter that erupted from the crowd was absolutely deafening.People were doubling over, grabbing each other's shoulders, pointing at Hector with tears streaming down their faces from laughing so hard. Some of them had already started mimicking what they predicted was coming next, putting on exaggerated dramatic voices and throwing their arms wide.“Oh, I am the DIRECTOR of the Ross Corporation!”“I am the REPRESENTATIVE and I hereby cancel this lottery!”“Twenty five million dollars? CANCELLED! Because I said so!”More laughter. Louder this time. Rolling through the crowd in waves that kept building on top of each other.James soaked it all in like sunlight. He turned and faced the crowd with the confidence of a man who had already won every battle worth winning tonight and knew it. His smile was wide and sharp and completely without mercy.“You see?” he announced to everybody, spreading his arms out. “We know you already, Hector. We know EXACTLY what you are.” He turned back to
Chapter 18
The moment Hector's words landed, the announcer's jaw tightened so hard anyone close could almost hear it.He knew.He knew he could not disobey. Not this man. Not Young Master Hector. Not even if the entire world was watching and every instinct in his body was screaming at him to do otherwise.Without wasting another second, he lowered his head back into that perfect ninety degree bow and held it there, not daring to raise it a single inch without permission.James watched the whole thing unfold with growing bewilderment twisting across his face.He stared at the announcer. Then at Hector. Then back at the announcer again. His mind was working furiously behind his eyes, trying to piece together something that simply refused to make sense no matter which angle he approached it from.Why? Why was this man bowing like that? Why was a professional announcer, a man of obvious standing and authority, repeatedly lowering his head to someone like Hector? What on earth was going on here?Jame
Chapter 17
Hector's voice came through the microphone one more time, quiet and deliberate.“Is that what you really want to do, James?”James's eyes narrowed.“If the lottery money is presented to you,” Hector continued, his tone almost curious, “that is what you plan to do with it? Lock me up? Make me disappear?”James didn't hesitate for even a fraction of a second. He nodded his head sharply, his jaw set, his entire body radiating absolute certainty.“Yes. Absolutely.” His voice was ice cold and utterly confident. “Or do you want me to do more than that? Actually—” He paused and a dangerous smile spread across his face. “Do you want me to start right now?”Before anyone could process what was happening, James turned and started walking directly toward Hector with long, purposeful strides. His eyes scanned the podium quickly and landed on exactly what he was looking for.A glass of water sitting on the edge of the table.He picked it up without breaking stride, his fingers wrapping around the
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