2024-10-28 14:47:59David’s words stunned everyone in the room. Except for Liam, no one could believe how things had turned out.
Yona stammered, “G-Grandpa, you must be mistaken! You really believe Mia’s lies? She must be fabricating everything to protect her reputation!”
“Grandpa, we cannot let someone with such loose morals lead the Stevens family! She’ll ruin everything!”
Yona was panicking. She had set up what she thought was the perfect trap, but now everything was spiraling out of control.
David studied Liam’s face. As soon as he entered the room, something about him looked familiar. Then it clicked—Liam was the grandson of his old friend.
“I’m sure I haven’t made a mistake,” David said calmly. “Liam, your grandfather is...?”
Liam answered politely, “Grandpa David, my grandfather is Shawn Moran, the current head of the Moran family.”
David smiled in satisfaction. “Good! Excellent! I was afraid Shawn might not keep his word, but it seems he really sent his grandson.”
Mia was completely confused by everything happening around her. “Grandpa, what’s going on?”
Yona, still in disbelief, shouted, “Grandpa, you must be mistaken! How can someone like him, a man who looks like a beggar, possibly be a part of the Stevens family?”
David’s face darkened at Yona’s words. In a sudden flash of anger, he slapped her across the face.
Yona stood stunned, holding her cheek, her eyes wide with shock as she stared at David.
David then calmly declared, “Don’t you know? Shawn was a close friend of mine when we were young. We made an agreement to marry our grandchildren. Liam is Shawn’s grandson, and he’s here to fulfill his marriage contract with Mia.”
“Mia, didn’t you already know about this? You were just calling him your fiancé earlier.”
Mia’s mouth dropped open in shock. She stammered, “I… I… yes, I…”
She quickly glanced at Liam, silently pleading for help.
Liam smiled reassuringly. “Actually, it was all fate. Mia and I met by chance, and I didn’t know at the time that she was my fiancée. It was only later that I learned her name and told her the truth.”
“She thought I was joking, but luckily, Grandpa David is here to confirm the engagement.”
David sighed and chuckled. “Mia has always been rebellious. I was afraid if I told her about the engagement, she’d resist marrying you even more.”
Liam continued, his tone calm yet firm, “But now, it seems that everything has worked out.”
David gave an ambiguous smile as he looked at the two of them. “Well, it’s decided then. Tomorrow morning, you two will go to register for the marriage. If you need anything, just let me know. I know the Moran family isn’t exactly wealthy, but that’s fine! The marriage between the Moran and Stevens families isn’t about money; it’s about the friendship between me and my old friend!”
The Moran family isn’t wealthy?
Liam scratched his head, surprised that his grandfather seemed to be hiding the truth. The Moran family was one of the wealthiest in the world, with trillions of dollars in assets! If they were poor, then everyone else in the world must be a beggar!
“By the way, dinner is at my place tonight. I’ll introduce you to everyone at the banquet,” David added, giving Liam a pat on the shoulder.
“A banquet? But Grandpa, the Stevens family never invites outsiders to our banquets…” Yona quickly interjected.
“Don’t be so talkative,” David scolded sharply, glaring at Yona before pulling her out of the room. “We’ll leave now, so you two lovebirds can have some private time.”
He closed the door behind him, and his words left Mia’s face flushed. However, as she glanced at Liam beside her, her brows furrowed.
A marriage contract? She didn’t want to marry someone like Liam!
Her ideal partner would either be a business genius or a super-talented individual. Why would she settle for someone like him?
She looked at Liam, her tone cold. “You’re not going to the family banquet tonight. I’ll handle things with Grandpa, and afterwards, we’ll annul the engagement. We’ll stay out of each other’s lives.”
Liam furrowed his brow. He didn’t particularly care for Mia, but as the heir to the Moran family, he had to honor his family’s promises.
If engagements could be broken so easily, the reputation of the Moran family would be ruined!
However, Mia didn’t give him a chance to speak. She grabbed her bag and stormed out of the room.
Liam shook his head helplessly and changed into his clothes.
Annul the engagement? That was impossible. He had to follow his grandfather’s wishes unless both David Stevens and his grandfather agreed to cancel the marriage.
He walked downstairs and out of the motel.
Just as he reached the front door, several luxury cars drove up and stopped in front of the motel.
An elderly man got out of the lead car and walked up to Liam. He bowed slightly.
“Sir, I’m Jack Gunter, responsible for the Moran family’s business in Springfield.”
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Latest Chapter
The Breaking Point
AriaThe envelope sat on my coffee table like a heavy burden I couldn’t carry anymore. I had stared at it for hours, mentally trying to prepare myself for whatever I would find in there before finally tearing it open, telling myself I was ready. But I wasn’t.My hands trembled as I spread the papers across the glass. Line after line of names filled the page. Half of my executive board. Half! These weren’t strangers or rivals. These were people I had built with, defended in board meetings, and fought for when others wanted them gone. And here they were, exposed in black and white, tied to the betrayal that had been choking me for months.For a long moment, I just sat there staring at the names, not sure what to do. The weight of it was crushing, and it got me wondering. If so many of them had turned, maybe Ellen was right. Maybe the problem wasn’t them. Maybe it was me.And so I curled myself on the couch, replaying every argument, every rushed decision, every time I’d snapped at some
Strings in the Dark
EllenThe skyline glittered outside my penthouse, like it knew what I was about to do. I cradled a glass of wine in my hand, swirling the deep red liquid while Lucian’s demand replayed in my head:Get me out, and I’ll keep your secret.The audacity. No one dared to corner me. Not board members, not investors, not family, and certainly not a man in chains. Yet his words had burrowed into me, and no matter how many times I tried to dismiss them, they echoed like a threat I couldn’t mute.I tapped the stem of the glass against my knee and opened my laptop. His freedom… that would be my leverage. If Lucian walked out of prison owing me, he wouldn’t just be an ally, he’d be my insurance policy against Aria.And so I scanned through the group of names on my screen, from lawyers who had hidden scandals to bird members whose careers I’d rescued. Even a government official who’d conveniently “forgotten” to file paperwork after I made it worth his while. One by one, I composed careful messages
A Deal in Chains
EllenAfter that night at the charity ball, I couldn’t sleep a wink. I paced my penthouse more and more, the lights of the city glowing outside my window while my own mind replayed Aria’s face over and over. The way she looked at me, with that obvious suspicion in her eyes, like she was seconds away from ripping the truth out of me with her bare hands, made me realize she was too close.I’d been careful for so long. Subtle and precise. But maybe I had underestimated her. She wasn’t as clueless as I had hoped. I thought I could keep her in the dark, circle Zion, and take my time. But now she was digging, and if she kept digging, she’d find me. My slip-ups weren’t little anymore. They were cracks, and I had to be careful of that.I pressed my hand to the back of a chair and forced myself to breathe. No, I couldn’t let her get there first. Not now, not ever. I needed to tilt the game back in my favor, and that meant pulling in someone who could do what I couldn’t: scare her, shake her, d
The Unwanted Ally
AriaI thought it would be Pete. When I first saw the car, every part of me was sure it was him even when I walked toward that parked car. The way it sat there in the dark, with its engine humming, and its headlights off, it reeked of Pete’s kind of cowardly theatrics. My pulse was hammering, my palms were damp, but I told myself I could handle him. Whatever this was about. But when the window rolled down, all that bravado died. It wasn’t Pete. It was a face I hadn’t seen in four years. A face I hoped I would never see again.The man leaned into the glow of the dashboard, with a smug half-smile cutting across his face like he’d been waiting for this exact moment. And just like that, my chest felt tight. I was slammed back into memories of alarms screaming, shadows running, the deafening crack of gunfire. These were memories from the Fabergé Egg job. The one that went sideways. The night we barely escaped.I recognize this man because he was the one whose wrath we escaped from that da
Fractured
AriaThose words burned like an itch in my throat that I couldn’t reach. I could feel the pride Ellen felt when Zion turned and walked away with her, never looking at me again. The door closed behind me with a dull thud that echoed in my chest louder than it did in the hallway.I stood there, frozen, staring at the polished wooden frame as if it would open again and Zion would come after me, call my name, tell me he hadn’t meant it. But with each second that passed, the silence pressed in heavier, and the truth cut deeper with every breath I took.“Some distance.”His words replayed in my head like a broken record, cruel and steady. He didn’t say it like a demand. No, he didn’t mean it like a punishment, but why did it still feel that way.I pressed a hand against the wall, trying to steady myself as the rush of humiliation hit me. I hadn’t just lost my argument. I hadn’t just been dismissed. She walked away with it. For a moment it almost seemed as if she won. I had walked right into
Slinters in the Room
AriaThe second Zion stepped into that room, I felt the ground shift under me. He wasn’t yelling, he wasn’t angry. That was the worst part. He just stood there in his charcoal suit, hands in his pockets, calm as if he had walked into a business meeting instead of a trap. His eyes flicked from Ellen to me, steady but unreadable.“What’s going on here?” he asked again, voice even.I swallowed hard and forced myself to speak before Ellen could twist anything. “I came here because I needed to see you. To talk to you. But then I see her—” I jabbed a finger toward Ellen, “—parading around like she’s your date, like she suddenly owns this company’s reputation. And then she drags me back here like I’m some uninvited guest trying to ruin your night.”Ellen didn’t move. Didn’t even flinch. She just crossed her arms and tilted her head, calm as a saint.“Zion,” I pressed, taking a step closer, “she’s playing a game. Can’t you see that? She’s been inserting herself everywhere around you, around t
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