2025-08-05 13:30:27
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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
Chapter 19: The Boardroom and the Gala Inferno
Desmond Hale adjusted his gold cufflinks with the elegance of a man born to power, his kingdom was built on buried knives ratherthough than birthright. The boardroom stretched out before him like a polished battlefield—mahogany table gleaming beneath crystal lighting, seats still empty but for one. His.He leaned back in the leather chair, a predator at rest, eyes scanning the quarterly report in front of him. The numbers were clean. Too clean. Exactly as he'd planned.There it was—the projected downturn in East Asia, the red ink of the Japan division just starting to drip like a wound. It would look like operational instability. A missed shipment here. A miscommunication there. But Desmond had curated every failing like a connoisseur of corporate collapse. There was no room for failure. He had seen to it that all and every loophole was filled and appropriately dealt with. No room for mistakes. Then came the falsified supplier audit. Slipped quietly into the hands of a desperate jun
Chapter 18: The Distance Between Us
Ava moved like she always did — poised, sharp, untouchable — but something in her eyes had dulled.Since Vale’s arrest, she and Liam hadn’t spoken more than five words outside business.She found him on the rooftop again, as always, overlooking the city like he owned it but didn’t trust it.“I miss you,” she said.He didn’t look at her. “You should.” His voice was cold and impersonal. Ava didn’t flinch, but the hit landed.“I didn’t lie about loving you," she insisted. “You lied about everything else," he countered. She walked over, tried to touch his arm. He stepped away.She stared at him, then whispered, “Don’t throw me out just because I did what I had to before I knew you.”Liam finally turned, and his voice was quiet but lethal.“I trusted you with the part of me no one gets. And when it cracked — all I saw was Vale.”She looked at him and he looked away. And stepped away as though determined to maintain the distance between them. She left without a word. Natalie on the ot
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