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Chapter 25: The Storm at His Door
It happened just after 7 a.m.Liam’s phone wouldn’t stop vibrating. He ignored the first two calls from Voss, assuming it was about an overnight market shift or a hostile board member making noise. The third call made him frown. By the fourth, he picked up.“They leaked it,” Voss said without preamble.Liam’s grip tightened on the phone. “Leaked what?”“The boy. You. Boston.”Ice spread through his spine. “Where?”“Everywhere. Takeda’s media arm packaged it into a headline: The Child Ava Langston Hid From the Empire.”“That’s a lie,” Liam said sharply.“I know,” Voss replied. “But they buried the truth under something better — headlines, sentiment, outrage. Social feeds are flooding with it. News anchors are dissecting your morality over morning coffee.”Liam didn’t bother pulling up the articles. He could already hear the crowd outside his building from the top floor — the chaos of press cameras, shouted questions, and the shrill click of shutters.From the street, voices rose like a
Chapter 24: His Eyes, My Ghosts
The Boston air had a different kind of bite than New York’s — cleaner, colder, sharper. The kind that seeped into your lungs and made you feel like you’d been stripped bare.Liam Hawthorne stood across the street from the quiet brownstone, hands in his coat pockets, watching the upper windows for signs of movement. He had been here for nearly an hour, watching life pass — a mailman making his rounds, a jogger with headphones, a neighbor scraping frost from a car windshield.No security. No cameras. No guards. Just the occasional sound of a child’s laugh drifting faintly from inside.When he finally crossed the street and climbed the steps, he wasn’t sure if his hands were cold from the air or from something deeper — nerves he wasn’t used to admitting to himself.He knocked.The door opened to a woman with tired eyes and a softness to her face that spoke of years spent choosing peace over confrontation. She was maybe thirty, her auburn hair pulled back loosely, wearing an oversized swe
Chapter 23 : The Blood They Took
Ava poured over the background check Liam had commissioned. The child’s name was Cassian Rhys. Aged seven. Born in Prague. No known father listed on any official records. The mother’s name? Nina Vargo.The file was thin. Too thin.“She’s scrubbed herself,” Ava muttered, tapping the screen. “No job history. No taxes filed under her name. Not even a registered address the last five years.”“She’s not hiding from the government,” Liam said quietly. “She’s hiding from me.”A long silence stretched between them.Ava’s fingers hovered over the screen. “This boy… Cassian. Are you absolutely sure?”Liam nodded, jaw clenched. “He has my eyes.”They had both seen the resemblance instantly. Not just in his features, but in the restless defiance captured in the single polaroid. It was the look of someone who’d already lost too much to believe in comfort.“He’s been raised without you,” Ava said, her voice low. “And now she wants you to know he exists. Why now?”That question had haunted Liam sinc
Chapter 22: Eight Years Ago
Flashback: Eight Years AgoThe city had been colder then — or maybe just lonelier. Liam was fresh off a broken engagement. His girlfriend at that time had left him for a richer guy and that nearly ruined him.He had come back to the little apartment they shared. There had been a promising response to his application. He had been invited for an interview and he was so happy, he wanted to share the good news with Rose. Thank goodness she was already home when he got there. He knew because the key was not where they usually kept it, under the doormat. He pushed open the door which was fortunately not locked and was about to shout her name in his uncontrollable joy when something on the floor drew his eyes and her name froze on his lips. On the floor was a line up of clothes, carelessly thrown or dropped. He followed the trail the caresskessly thrown clothes laid. First were her shoes, then panties. He picked up an item of clothing that he had not seen before. It was a short. A make sh
Chapter 21: The King of Nothing
Liam stared at the headlines on the glowing tablet in front of him. His coffee sat untouched, growing cold. “Hawthorne Empire Expands Into East Asia After Takeda Deal Collapse”“CEO Called ‘Too American’ for Global Integration”“Liam Hawthorne: The King of Nothing or the Next Global Warlord?”The words crawled like vipers across the screen, each one sharpened to provoke. They weren’t just reporting facts — they were trying to write his downfall before it had even begun.The board wanted calm.The press wanted blood.And Takeda?Takeda wanted revenge.The Japanese tech giant had once been a potential ally. Liam had extended his hand in good faith. Even flown to Osaka, sat across from him with translators and contract lawyers, outlining a partnership that could’ve pushed Hawthorne Holdings global.But when Liam refused to cede control, refused to become a puppet CEO beneath a foreign conglomerate’s thumb, Takeda turned cold. The deal collapsed, and with it came whispers — that Liam was
Chapter20: Knife at the Table
Desmond Hale stifled a smile. Today was the day he had been waiting for. Liam Hawthorne was going down. So what iif he was the owner of the empire? It was going to end up being his - Desmond Hale's. He had not spent months plotting all this in vain. He was going to teach Lam how this game was played. The Hawthorne Boardroom was packed.Press swarmed the front lobby. Protesters filled the sidewalks.The leak about Liam’s “financial mismanagement” had gone viral overnight.And now, Desmond Hale stood at the head of the table, flanked by three senior board members.“I move for a vote of no confidence in CEO Liam Hawthorne,” he announced. “Effective immediately.”Gasps rippled through the room.Liam sat silently at the far end of the table. Calm. Composed. But cold.His eyes never left Desmond’s.“On what grounds?” Voss demanded.Desmond smiled. “Multiple. Overseas instability. Poor investor retention. Dangerous romantic entanglements with a known criminal affiliate — Ava Langston.”Tha
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