
“Head Commander Lewis Brown has arrived. He seeks an audience with Lady Rose of the Lawrence family.”
The moment those words rang out, three men in sharp military uniforms walked into the grand hall. Their boots clicked against the marble floor with each step. Lewis Brown led the way while his two men followed close behind him. Both servants gripped golden boxes in their hands, the metal catching the light from the chandeliers above. Every person in that room couldn't help themselves but turned to look. Heads nodded with respect when they saw the head commander's uniform. Most of them had expected this moment to come. After all, Lady Rose was bringing something special to the table tonight. A woman like her deserved attention from the highest ranks in the military. Lewis walked toward the platform with his chest pushed out and shoulders pulled back. Pride practically rolled off him in waves. Everyone could see he knew exactly how important he was in this room full of people. His uniform bore the marks of his high position, and he wore them like a crown. At that moment he stopped right at the edge of the platform where Lady Rose stood waiting. Without breaking eye contact with her, he dropped down to one knee. His voice carried across the silent hall when he spoke. “I, Head Commander Lewis Brown, pay my respects to the lady of the Lawrence family. I have come here tonight to ask for your hand in marriage. These gifts I brought are the most expensive treasures anyone could dream of bringing to an event like this!” Right after he spoke those words, his two servants stepped forward and opened both golden boxes. The first box held a shining golden bank card that could be taken to any bank and cashed out for ten million dollars. The second box was bigger than the first one and sparkled with all kinds of golden jewelry inside. “Those jewelries have got to be worth ten million dollars at least!” Someone in the crowd shouted out loud enough for everyone to hear. Then Lewis got back up on his feet at that moment and turned toward the voice with a big smile spreading across his face. “You're wrong about that. They're worth twenty million dollars!” Immediately he made mention of the amount the whole room exploded with noise. People gasped and started talking all at once. Lewis couldn't stop grinning as he watched everyone's shocked faces. On their side of the platform, Old Master Lawrence and his wife were beaming with joy. Finally, Rose was getting the attention she deserved from someone important. A head commander no less, and this was happening after she had wasted her time having a baby with that worthless man who was dead now. Old Master Lawrence pushed himself up from his chair. He opened his mouth to speak when another voice cut through all the noise in the hall. “Three star head commander William Hendrix would like to seek an audience with Lady Rose of the Lawrence family.” The entire hall buzzed with shock. Nobody had expected a three star head commander to show up tonight. Now Lady Rose had two powerful men fighting for her attention. Immediately Lewis felt his stomach drop when he heard those words. His face went dark as storm clouds. He couldn't believe someone with higher rank than him wanted Rose too. This whole thing would come down to money now, and he knew it. He glanced down at his golden boxes and tried to pump himself up. The gap between them wasn't that huge. He still had a real shot at winning her hand. But before he could feel good about his chances, another voice boomed through the hall. Actually, three more announcements hit them one right after the other. “Five star Head Commander Sebastian Rowan seeks an audience with Lady Rose. He brings a golden card worth one hundred million dollars to the table.” Immediately Every mouth in that room dropped open. People started whispering and pointing. One hundred million dollars was more money than most of them would see in ten lifetimes. The second announcement followed right behind the first one, but the words got lost in all the noise and excitement filling the air. Then the final announcement cut through everything like a knife. The whole hall went dead silent. Even the air seemed to get colder. “King of War Henry King seeks an audience with Lady Rose.” Every single person in that room turned their heads toward the entrance. Lewis, the three star commander, the five star commander, and everyone else who had been making noise just seconds before. All eyes locked on those big doors, waiting to see the man who held the one of the most feared title in the entire military. Henry King walked into the hall like he owned the entire world. Something about the way he moved made everyone feel small without him even trying. He didn't have servants following behind him. No golden boxes in his hands. Nothing. But somehow that made him seem even more powerful than all the other commanders combined. “Lady Rose, you have done quite well for yourself. Getting your body to the second level of Golden State of Temperance takes real work. Sleeping with you would make me three times stronger than I am right now. I have decided I will marry you.” His voice carried across the room even though he was still standing far from the platform. Rose's face twisted with anger when those words hit her ears. But her father and everyone else in that hall looked thrilled. Heads bobbed up and down all around the room. People nudged each other with their elbows and smiled. “He's just saying what we're all thinking anyway. The King of War is being honest about why he wants her!” Henry heard all the support coming his way. It was nothing new to him. People always backed whatever he said or did. Then he let a small smile touch his lips. “Let's stop wasting time with all this ceremony. We can move straight to the marriage rites right now. My bed at home is getting cold without a woman in it.” But before anyone could respond to his words, a voice rang out from somewhere behind him. “She is not going anywhere with you, King of War Henry King. That woman standing up there has already been taken.” The words hit the room like a bomb. Every head whipped around to see who had the guts to speak against someone as powerful as Henry King. It had to be someone even more important than him. The announcer's voice cracked slightly when he spoke next. “Announcement!”Latest Chapter
Chapter 288
At that moment, the second the words "black file" left Jonathan's mouth and traveled through the line, there was a shift on the other end that was so immediate and so palpable that Jonathan could feel it even through the silence.A pause.Not the natural kind, not the brief hesitation of someone gathering their thoughts or deciding how to phrase something. This was the pause of a man who had just heard something that changed the entire temperature of the conversation, something that required recalibration, something that could not be responded to lightly or casually or over an open phone line in the middle of the night.And then the voice came back, quieter now, more guarded, carrying a weight that had not been there a moment ago."You want me to access the black file?"The question was careful. Precise. Not disbelieving exactly, but close to it, like the man on the other end needed to confirm that he had heard correctly before he allowed himself to fully process what was being asked
Chapter 287
At that moment, Jonathan's grip on the phone tightened, and when he spoke, his voice came out low and sharp, carrying the kind of edge that only appears when a man has just realized he has been made a fool of and is now watching the entire humiliation replay itself in his mind with perfect, brutal clarity."I thought as much," he said, and there was something raw underneath the words now, something that had been sitting compressed and silent throughout the entire conversation with his wife and was now finally being allowed to surface. "I was thinking about it. I have been thinking about it constantly since it happened. Everything moved so fast in that hospital room. Everything happened so quickly that I could not process it properly. I could not get my mind around it in the moment, could not put the pieces together the way I needed to because I was in the middle of it and it was happening to me and I was already on the ground before I even understood what I was kneeling for."He stopp
Chapter 286
The air outside hit Jonathan the moment he stepped out, cool and indifferent, and he moved through it quickly, crossing the distance to his car with the focused, purposeful stride of a man who had been waiting to make this call for the better part of the last hour.He got in.Pulled the door shut behind him.The interior of the car wrapped around him in darkness and quiet, and he sat there for exactly one second before he pulled out his phone and scrolled to the number. He pressed call and brought the phone to his ear, and it rang once, just once, before the line connected.He did not bother with greetings."Have you gotten anything?" he said, his voice dropping into the low, direct register he used when he was operating outside of the version of himself that existed inside that house. "The information I sent you. Have you found anything?"The voice on the other end was measured and professional, the voice of someone who worked carefully and did not speak until they had something wort
Chapter 285
At that moment, the question about Zachariah hit Jonathan like a stone thrown into still water, and the ripples moved through him fast and unsettling even though nothing on his face showed it.He did not know anything about Zachariah.Not really. Not in any meaningful, detailed way that would satisfy the kind of question his wife had just asked with that particular look in her eyes. And he was fully aware, standing there in that living room, that saying he knew nothing was a door he could not afford to open right now. Not after everything else he had just navigated in this conversation. Not when Serena was already in a state of heightened attention, already reading him more carefully than usual, already looking for things that did not add up.So he reached for what little he had and he shaped it into something that sounded like more."There has been some news about that," he said, and his voice came out with the measured, slightly distracted quality of a man recalling something he had
Chapter 284
Serena's laughter faded, but the bright, sharp energy behind it did not go anywhere. It simply transformed itself into something else, something that carried an edge to it now, the edge of a woman who had just realized she had been kept waiting on something she deserved to know about far sooner."Why did you not tell me earlier?" she said, and the question came out pointed and direct, the way only a question from a wife can come out when it has been sitting unasked for too long. "Why did you keep this from me all this time? All of this, him being a military cleaner, all of those details, and you just held onto it?" She looked at him with her arms crossing slowly over her chest. "You fed me scraps and kept the real information to yourself. That is not fair. That is truly not fair at all and I want you to know that I am not happy about it." She paused, and then something shifted in her expression, a small, calculating light coming into her eyes. "But since you have finally told me, si
Chapter 283
At that moment, Serena nodded her head, and the satisfaction on her face was the kind that settles deep, the satisfaction of a woman who had pushed and pushed and finally gotten what she came for."Good," she said, and the word came out rich and warm, like something she had been waiting to say for the entirety of this conversation. "Very, very good." She looked at him with eyes that carried just a trace of lingering disbelief, the kind that softens once the crisis has passed but does not entirely disappear. "Because I have to tell you, for a moment there, I genuinely could not understand what was happening. I was standing here thinking, why would this man not want to be part of this? Why would he hesitate even for a second?" She shook her head slowly. "You know how much I hate this person. You know how deeply and completely I want to get one over on Rose, how long I have been carrying this, how much it matters to me. And you were just standing there like you wanted to let it go. Lik
You may also like

Billionaire in Disguise
Faith125.5K views
Rise From Prison: Married To A Beautiful CEO
Rex Magnus218.3K views
The Legendary Conglomerate
Lord MOH122.8K views
Return of the son-in-law
Chessman77.7K views
The Unbeatable Warlord
Albs Pen94 views
The Bullied Manager is now the Great Mage
TASNEEM64 views
The Man Who Broke Raphael
Hello arri137 views
The Billionaire Bastard's Vendetta
Raellye Len138 views