Supreme Legacy: Rise and Revenge

Chapter 2: Adrian’s Reckoning

The spectacle on the giant screen raged on.

Hailey Grant clung to Felix Irving’s neck, hips rolling to meet each thrust. Her voice was syrup-slick. “You’re about to get married, and you still come to me. Aren’t you afraid your fiancée will find out?”

“Only because I love you,” Felix panted. “You’re the only one in my heart. I feel nothing for her. I’m just leveraging her family to climb. Once I’m on the board, I’ll make you a vice president. Money, power—you’ll have whatever you want.”

Felix’s skull felt like it would burst. Madness clawed at him.

How could these videos be playing here, of all places? Who wanted him destroyed?

He whipped his head toward the bride, Daisy Hill. Her face was a portrait of disappointment, her eyes black with loathing.

“Daisy, let me explain—”

Smack!

Daisy’s palm cracked across his cheek.

“What is there to explain? So all that tenderness was an act. You used me for my family name, and behind my back you did… this. Disgusting. You make my skin crawl.”

Daisy, daughter of Cameron Hill, the company’s chairman, had returned from overseas to take a management post. Naïve in love, she had slowly yielded beneath Felix’s relentless pursuit. He was young, ambitious, handsome; six months into dating, they were engaged.

Now Daisy shook with rage. She had never imagined this nightmare would choose her.

“Get out!” Cameron Hill roared. “I must have been blind to nearly give my daughter to scum like you. From this moment on, you are finished at Hill Group. As long as I, Cameron Hill, draw breath, there is no place for you in Skyline City!”

Cameron had ruled Skyline City for over thirty years; his reach was staggering. His threat was no bluff.

Felix quailed under the man’s force of presence, knees knocking. He groped for words and found none.

He collapsed to his knees. “Dad—”

“Don’t you dare call me that.”

“Chairman, I was wrong— I was wrong— I truly see my mistake—” Felix slapped himself hard, over and over, repeating the same pitiful line.

It had taken him five long years to claw his way this far. He’d wagged and groveled, a loyal hound to his betters, just to get a foothold with the Hill family. His ascent had been at hand—and now it was ash.

He wrapped both arms around Cameron Hill’s leg in a last, pathetic plea.

“Get out,” Cameron snarled, driving a boot into Felix’s chest and kicking him flat. He took his daughter’s hand and strode off the stage.

Felix stared after them, hollow-eyed, as if his soul had leaked away.

Suddenly, some instinct snapped him upright. He sprang from the stage and stormed toward the table where his coworkers sat.

To the horror of everyone watching, Felix seized Hailey by the collar and slapped her hard across the face.

“You filthy slut—you did this to me! You ruined everything!”

Hailey stared at his twisted expression, terrified. “Don’t hit me—let me go—”

Relatives on the groom’s side surged forward, fury hunting a target. They fixed on the woman who had disgraced them all—Hailey.

They meant to pour every drop of shame onto her.

“You bitch,” Felix’s sister spat, flinging a glass of wine into Hailey’s face. “You seduced my brother—shameless! You wrecked his future, whore!”

“All those clothes and that bag—my son bought them! Leech! You took his money and still destroyed his marriage. You should be ashamed to live!”

“Strip her! Those things were paid for by Felix!”

Hands clawed at Hailey from every angle. Fabric tore. In moments she was half-naked, her underwear exposed to the air. She sobbed, arms crossed tight over her chest.

Their coworkers watched like it was a show. No one stepped in. Phones came out, lenses drinking it in for the internet.

“She slept with a taken man, cheated on her boyfriend, got abortions—then played the innocent at work.”

“Nasty little fraud. Puts on a saint’s face in public, wallows in filth in private.”

“Felix is trash too. Climbed by brown-nosing. He never deserved to be a manager. Getting fired is the best news today.”

From a distance, a wicked little smile curved Adrian Doyle’s mouth as he quietly savored the scene.

He’d once discussed marriage with Hailey. She had demanded five hundred thousand dollars and a downtown apartment before she’d consider it.

She’d even cursed his mother, calling her illness a bottomless pit—better off dead.

Adrian had given Hailey everything he could across the years, only to be crowned with the greenest of laurels.

Heat prickled at his breastbone. He glanced down to see the violet bead at his chest gone pitch black, like a drop of ink.

Before he could process it—

“Adrian, help me—please!”

Hailey had spotted him in the crowd like a drowning woman sighting a lifeline.

Adrian didn’t hesitate. He cut a path toward her.

Their coworkers wore smirks. Everyone knew Adrian’s devotion to Hailey. Now that her cheating had been blasted on a giant screen, would he still stomach it?

Some were already looking at him with open contempt.

“Adrian, I’m begging you—get me out of here. It was Felix—he pressured me, manipulated me—” As Adrian drew near, Hailey pleaded, frantic. “You’re the one I’ve always loved. It only happened once—he forced me. You have to believe me!”

“After today, let’s just get married. I don’t want the money anymore. The house can be in the suburbs—anything, I swear.”

Silence from Adrian left the onlookers stunned and exasperated.

He stepped to Hailey’s side and leaned in, whispering at her ear: “Thirteen gigabytes.”

“What? What are you talking about?” Hailey blinked, dumbstruck.

“All the videos you shot with Felix add up to thirteen gigabytes. So now you know where tonight’s footage came from.” He straightened, gaze flat and cold.

“You?” Hailey’s pupils pinpricked; fury and disbelief flooded her face.

How could Adrian possibly know about those files?

She lashed out like a cornered shrew, claws aiming for his face. “You bastard! You did this to me?”

Her hand never made it. Adrian caught her wrist with effortless precision.

Smack.

His left hand flicked free and came back across her cheek, sharp and clean.

“You sowed it. Now you’re reaping it. And you still dare pin this on me? Did you think I’m the same doormat you used to mold at will?”

Adrian adjusted his jacket with one hand, each word carved from ice. “Cross me again, and you’ll regret it.”

He turned on his heel and strode out of the hall.

Hailey clutched her face, eyes burning with hate.

Felix had heard every word. Only now did it dawn on him that Adrian was the architect of his ruin. He moved to block Adrian’s path—but a single, hawk-sharp glance from Adrian made his nerve collapse.

A bully at heart, Felix spun and slapped Hailey again.

“Damn whore. Meeting you was the worst luck of my life.”