2026-11-09 23:35:10
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
CHAPTER 362 PART 2
Silence filled the office. Dempsey crossed the room and stood beside the desk. She looked at Quinn’s face and saw something there that she had not seen in months. The old Quinn. The girl who longed for a grandfather’s approval and never once received it.“It could be a trick.” Dempsey said it gently, like she was setting a glass on a table that might shatter. “He has done it before.”“I know.” Quinn stared at the black screen. “But what if he did not?”Her hand was already moving. She dialed Preston’s number and pressed the phone to her ear. It rang twice.“Quinn?” Preston’s voice came through broken and thick, and the sound of sobbing leaked down the line. “Oh, thank God you called. I did not know how to reach you. I did not know if you would even pick up.”Quinn’s heart sank into her stomach. “Preston. What happened to Grandfather?”“He collapsed three days ago.” Preston choked on the last word. “At the villa. The doctors say it is his heart, and his kidneys, and something in his bl
CHAPTER 363 PART 1
The top floor of the Hartford Group building was quiet except for the soft rustle of paper. Quinn Hartford sat behind her desk with a stack of cancellation notices in front of her, and the afternoon light made her face look paler than usual.Dempsey Davenport stood on the other side of the desk with a tablet in her hands. She cleared her throat and read the damage out loud like a doctor listing symptoms.“Blue Sky Real Estate froze its payment this morning.” Dempsey scrolled down with her thumb. “International Trade Electronic Technology canceled the entire supply contract an hour later. Three smaller partners followed before lunch.”Quinn closed her eyes for a moment and rubbed her temple. “All of them cited the same reason?”“They did not cite a reason at all.” Dempsey set the tablet down. “But we both know why. Miguel Abbott and Stanislaus Potter died in that car crash, and every partner who stood behind their names is running for the exits.”Quinn opened her eyes. She did not slam
CHAPTER 361 PART 2
“Not poison, medicine.” Preston raised both hands calmly. “Do you think I would feed my own blood a risk? Give me the first dose. I will take it tomorrow in front of you. If I wake up laughing, you take yours.”The old man stared at his grandson for a long time. His eyes grew wet.“You would do that for me?”“I would do anything for this family.” Preston placed a hand over his heart and looked as sincere as a priest at a funeral.Behind that face, a different voice whispered inside his skull. The drug was no trance. It was a slow killer that would stop the old man’s heart or turn his brain to porridge. Sterling Fairbanks had promised him backing and a seat at the top. With Zachary gone, the family fortune, the stocks, and the Love Island store rights would all fall into Preston’s lap like ripe fruit.Zachary dabbed his eyes with a handkerchief. Then he straightened, and the old fire returned to his voice.“No test.” Zachary waved a hand sharply. “I will not let you swallow any needle
CHAPTER 361 PART 1
The Hartford family villa had not smelled this warm in months. Zachary Hartford sat in his leather armchair with a cup of tea steaming in his hands, watching his grandson pace the carpet on a pair of crutches, and his old face glowed like a man who had just found money in a coat he forgot he owned.“Look at you.” Zachary lowered his cup and shook his head with a proud smile. “Thinking. Planning. Six months ago you could not plan which tie to wear.”Preston Hartford stopped walking and gave a humble little bow of his head. His casts were gone, replaced by braces, and his face still showed yellow bruises, but his eyes were sharp.“I was a fool, Grandfather.” Preston lowered his voice like a student confessing to a teacher. “My failures let Quinn climb over us and split the family in half. I will not waste my second chance.”Zachary sighed deeply and patted the armrest. “A boy has to fall before he learns to stand. I always believed you would grow up.”Preston limped to the table and spr
CHAPTER 360 PART 2
Preston hesitated. The hesitation lasted exactly long enough for Zachary to press harder, and not one second longer.“He called you an ungrateful old man.” Preston’s lip trembled and his eyes squeezed shut. “He said you fed him and housed him for three years and he cursed the hand that gave him everything. He said an old man like Zachary Hartford should just lie down and die already because the world has moved past men like you.”Zachary’s face did not move. But something behind his eyes shifted like tectonic plates grinding against each other underground.“He said Quinn carried the Hartford name on her back while you sat in your office pretending to matter.” Preston’s voice cracked on the last word. “He said every business deal you ever made was built on the work of people smarter than you, and that without Quinn propping up the family name, Zachary Hartford would be nothing but a senile old fool counting money he did not earn.”Zachary’s fist hit the hospital room wall.The sound cr
CHAPTER 360 PART 1
Zachary Hartford’s phone was still warm against his ear when he reached for his coat on the hook behind his office door. His secretary looked up from her desk and opened her mouth to ask about the afternoon schedule. The expression on Zachary’s face closed her mouth before a single word came out.“Arrange the car.” Zachary shoved his arm through his coat sleeve and missed twice. “Now. Harmony Hospital. Sixth floor.”“Sir, you have the Northern Energy Group board review at three.” His secretary stood with her tablet clutched against her chest.“Cancel it.” Zachary was already in the elevator. The doors closed on whatever she was about to say next.His driver had never seen Zachary Hartford run. Today Zachary Hartford ran. Across the lobby, through the glass doors, into the back of the sedan with the kind of urgency that only comes from a man who has spent decades building something so that the people he loved would never have to suffer, and has just learned that the building failed.Pr
You may also like
Reincarnated in another world with a Gunsmithing System
Ashdenroth16.8K viewsRise of the Useless Son-in-Law
Twilight35.5K viewsImmortal Universe
Shin Novel 21.1K viewsDivine Cultivator: Rebirth of the God Emperor
Dragonix Loki44.9K viewsHeroic Chronicle of the Reincarnated Demon General
_michael243 viewsThe Beast Tamers Hidden System
Toluwrites244 viewsTHE KING'S LAST GAMBLE
Gabriel 54 viewsI Am The Demon Prince
PSA105 views