Asking the question Liam’s throat burned as he swallowed the tight lump in it. His voice came out cracked, raw, almost like a cry.
“Why would you do such a thing?” he asked quietly. “I thought you loved me.” He pointed at Mr Benjamin, his hand trembling but steady enough to drive his point. “He has nothing to offer you,” Liam said, pain lacing every word. “Don't you know who he's, I have not told you who he's. He’s just a skirt chaser! He will never marry you, Emily. Never! He uses women like they’re toys, you know that, I have told you countless times before.” He still couldn’t wrap his head around what he was seeing, what he was hearing. Emily’s family was almost as wealthy as the Reeds the same social class as the Benjamins. So what was she hoping to gain from this? Why throw everything away for someone like him? A sudden sound filled the silence. It was laughter loud, cruel, oddly relaxed. Benjamin leaned against his desk, half dressed, his face creased in amusement. “You’re such a fool, Liam,” he said, still smiling mockingly. “Two years, and you never touched your own wife. You really believed her, didn’t you? Thought she just wanted to wait… that she wanted to focus on your ‘future’ first.” Then he shook his head, still laughing. “I figured she couldn’t pull that off for long, but you—” he glanced at Emily with a smirk—“you’re a bigger moron than I imagined. You actually fell for it.” Every word twisted deeper into Liam’s chest. His eyebrows drew together, confusion mixing with disbelief. “What are you talking about?” he managed to say, his eyes darting between them. At that moment Emily moved closer to Benjamin and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, as if claiming him fully. Her face steadied. The kindness that once lived there was gone, replaced by something colder, and calculating, sure of itself. “I never loved you, Liam,” she said at last, her tone flat, merciless. Hearing what she just said Liam blinked, unable to breathe for a moment. “I’ve known Benjamin for a long time,” Emily continued, her voice frighteningly calm. “We were supposed to get married years ago. But then my family discovered through a reliable source that the land your old wooden house sits on contains valuable minerals.” Her words came slow, almost patient, as though she was explaining math to a child. “If we had reported it to the government, you would’ve been forced to leave the land. They’d pay you a peanut compared to what it’s actually worth. But if the land belonged to my family…” At that moment she gave a small, satisfied smile. “We would receive not only a huge payout from the government but also a lifetime share from the mining revenue.” Liam’s legs gave way beneath him, and he fell to his knees. The sound of them hitting the floor echoed faintly across the tiled office, hollow and heavy like the thud of finality. His hands slid forward instinctively, almost reaching for something to hold onto but there was nothing. That was when the realization hit him, It all began to make sense, painfully, piece by piece. He had never seen Emily’s body before. Not once since they married. She had always found reasons too tired, too stressed, not ready, the timing wasn’t right. He thought it was because she wanted stability first, that she was planning for their future before bringing a child into it. He didn’t know the truth was simpler: she just didn’t want him. She never wanted him. At that moment Emily’s lips curved into a small smile, the kind that carried cruelty dressed as grace. “Yesterday,” she began, almost sweetly, “you made me the head of the household… So I had the power to sell the house. I transferred the property to my parents’ name. It’s done. There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s forever.” The words fell softly, but each one struck him like stones. Liam’s eyes widened, his mouth parting without sound. His whole body shook. The air around him suddenly felt too thin, too cold to breathe. That house… His great‑grandparents had built it with their bare hands, one brick at a time. His grandfather kept it alive, repaired it when the storms came. His father lived and died there. It was the last thing left of his bloodline, the only legacy he had ever known. Everything he was had started under that roof. Now it was gone, all gone. He remembered the moment vividly the moment he handed her the household rights. He did it because he trusted her, because she had told him it would make tax issues easier. The agents had been visiting often, asking for property taxes and paperwork; she pleaded gently every night, convincing him it was safer that way. For over a week, she had insisted, smiling softly, acting like she cared about easing his stress. And he, foolishly, thought he was protecting her protecting them. So yesterday, he signed the paper. He made her head of the house. He thought he was securing a benefit for himself too, maybe saving a little time and legal advantage from the mining company’s regulations. He didn’t know he never imagined it was her plan all along. And once she accomplished it, she didn’t even wait a day. She divorced him the next day. Liam remained on the floor, his palms pressed against the cold tiles, his mind swirling in chaos. Every thought collided with another until nothing felt real anymore. The air around him seemed to twist; the walls, the desk, even Emily’s face blurred together into one dreadful storm. “How could you be so heartless!” The words tore out of him, raw and trembling. He sprang to his feet with sudden force, the kind that comes when pain turns into rage. His breathing was sharp and uneven as he moved toward her. The look in his eyes wasn’t pure anger it was desperation, the cry of a broken man who couldn’t understand why the person he loved had chosen to destroy him so easily. Immediately Emily stepped back instinctively. Her face showed no fear, just annoyance, as though Liam’s pain was a nuisance to her. To her, it looked like she had done nothing wrong like she had every right to sell his home, lie to his face, and leave him hollow inside. It burned through Liam’s chest, that expression. Everything he’d worked for was gone his home, his family history, his dignity all erased with her coldness. No remorse. No hint of regret. She looked at him as if he were less than human. Like he was simply another E‑citizen something beneath her, something disposable.Latest Chapter
Chapter 310
There were incubators and donor plaques and speeches about maternal futures and data-driven care. There were children brought in for photogenic resilience. There was applause. There were handshakes. All of it gilded over the knowledge that behind the pastel branding and polished stone, the country’s hidden architects had just used a pediatric wing for council and warning.When Penelope finally re-emerged into the public forecourt with her mother, the air outside felt brutally honest by comparison. Noise. Heat. Crowds. Microphones. A small line of genuine families thanking donors for the new wing, not knowing the depth of the room they had just blessed with hope.That hurt in a way she had no time to process.Because evil that occupied good infrastructure was harder to hate cleanly. You could not simply burn the building. Children still needed medicine. Nurses still needed equipment. The structure rotted while lives depended on it.That, Penelope realized, was how Seppo had endured so
Chapter 309
“South service corridor,” Liam murmured through the microcomms. “Medical logistics wing access is tighter than expected. Two private security layers, one visible, one not. Creed’s people or trained to his standard.”Penelope kept her face directed toward Naomi Vossler, who was now introducing her to a cluster of smiling officials as if there were nothing in the room except philanthropy and cameras. “Can you get through?”“Eventually.”“Not alone,” she said under her breath, smiling for a photographer.Naomi’s eyes flicked to her mouth, then away. If she noticed the sub-vocal pattern, she gave no sign.Mrs. Vale had already become useful in motion, drawing one minister and then another into the kind of conversation that looked idle but changed traffic around it. Doors opened around women like her without anyone feeling ordered. Penelope saw it and understood for the first time how much of her mother’s old power had been wasted on preservation rather than disruption.The ribbon ceremony
Chapter 308
The upper loft had once been used for sensitive paper storage before everything digitized. Now it held two hastily made sleeping areas, a portable worktable, one industrial lamp, and windows narrow enough to provide almost no useful line of sight to anyone outside. The river beyond made a constant dark sound against retaining walls, less water than pressure.Selene stayed only long enough to walk them through routes and protocols.“No open lights near the front windows. No devices outside the secure mesh. Two taps on the stair rail if it’s me, three if it’s one of mine. If you hear four, don’t come out.”Penelope almost asked what four meant. Then decided she knew.After she left, the annex seemed to inhale around them.For the first time all day, it was just Liam and Penelope.No board.No mother.No Chen.No analysts or security briefings in the immediate air.Just the two of them in a strange refuge built from obsolescence and choice.Penelope sat on the edge of the narrow cot and
Chapter 307
That was both gift and danger.Chaos diluted Seppo’s control over the immediate storyline.Chaos also created enough noise for them to hide the next move.Liam returned from the vehicle bay with more blood on his sleeve than when he had left, though this time it wasn’t his.“One assailant?” Penelope asked before he had fully entered.“Likely one primary, one support,” he said. “Support exfiltrated through drainage access. Primary may still be inside or may have changed profile before exiting during response compression.”“Meaning?”“Meaning the killer could be gone or upstairs in a borrowed badge.”Louis swore faintly.Selene followed, face set like stone. “Cameras were looped by an internal signal injector. Quist’s touch again, or someone carrying her architecture. The throat cut was precise. No hesitation. Creed’s training profile.”Adrian leaned back against the conference table. “So surveillance, physical insertion, media pressure, banking attack, and policing narrative in one day
Chapter 306
back out, Liam caught Penelope alone for half a minute in the side office adjoining the atrium.Not truly alone, of course. Nothing was truly alone anymore. There were guards outside the frosted glass, radios murmuring beyond the frame, movement everywhere in the building. But for a small pocket of time they had a door and each other and the compressed gravity of things too large to say in corridors.“You don’t have to do this to prove anything to me,” he said.Penelope had expected many objections from him. That one she had not expected.She looked up from the cuffs she was refastening and met his eyes. “I’m not.”“I know.” He took one step closer. “I’m making sure you know.”It would have irritated her in anyone else—this insistence on distinguishing motive from reaction while the building still smelled faintly of smoke. From Liam, it only tightened something deep in her chest. Because he meant it. He would stand beside her in danger without secretly needing the danger to validate w
Chapter 305
Penelope looked up. Liam caught her gaze at once. Creed.“One of the ten,” she said aloud.Chen was quiet for just a second too long. “So you’ve named them.”“Informally.”“Then keep your circle tight. Because if you’re right, this just got bigger than one family and one bank.”“It was already bigger.”“Yes,” Chen said, voice flattening. “And now they’re not pretending otherwise.”“Can you hold the scene?”“I can hold parts of it. Kelm is sending his own people. I’m counter-ordering what I can. Also, your board chair filed an emergency request for institutional separation from your personal legal exposure twelve minutes after shots were fired.”Penelope closed her eyes for one second. Harrow wasting no time. “I’ll deal with him.”“You may not have long. And one more thing.” Chen lowered her voice despite the secure line. “One of my people heard a name on police internal. Not from evidence. From fear. Seppo.”The safe room seemed to contract.“I know,” Penelope said.“Then understand m
You may also like

The Trillionaire's Heir
Renglassi342.4K views
The understated miraculous Doctor.
Pen thinker 104.3K views
The Heir's Revenge
Twine Twin81.5K views
The Ruthless Son-in-law
Bella Starr141.7K views
The Man Who Won the End in the World
Mayra50 views
The 0% Dad Is A Secret Bitcoin King
LIAM MUSE119 views
They Thought I Was Just Her Husband
Millie204 views
The Warlord They Called a Grunt
SanRose107 views