Chapter 1: Failure

"Mr Hayes, this is an emergency. We can't keep compromising on this anymore. Everything is your responsibility. Now the T-serum project is officially declared a failure even before the release time," said a man with a very upset facial expression.

The man was part of a consortium group in Racoon City that was the main investor funding every flagship project in the market. The Consortium Men had spent millions to fund Zayn Hayes's T-Serum project and his start-up company.

"You can't give up like this. I'm sure the product the company will come out with will be different from what we will come out with. We have all agreed that the T-Serum project will be introduced to the public in the next 1 to 2 months," Zayn said, trying to save his company from bankruptcy.

"Are you sure about that, Mr Hayes? Our team has investigated, and the product announced yesterday en masse is similar to the one your team developed. I don't know how, but it's clear that your formula and data have been leaked to the opposing side, and we don't want to be involved in this mess."

Zayn seems to have no chance to defend himself. The Startup Company he had built seemed to be doomed. The Consortium Men were no longer in Zayn's favour.

"Mr Hayes, it's with a heavy heart that we break off our partnership with you. You're a man of big ideas but too wild to be true. It is a bill of costs that you will have to pay. Don't even think about dodging as we already have official police and court authorisation to arrest you and freeze your assets if you try to betray us," the man's words were truly a checkmate move for Zayn.

"What!" Zayn gaped in disbelief, especially when he saw the bill on the invoice. The man knew he didn't have enough company money to pay all the damages.

"You only have 24 hours to pay off everything!" Those words came out of them before the meeting was finally over.

Zayn had no idea that he would now lose everything. He had an internal meeting with the company team, and after doing some calculations, they found that the company's cash flow would not be enough to pay the bills. There was no other option left for Zayn but to close his startup.

"No, I can't give up. There must be something I can do," Zayn muttered at his office desk. On the desk was a picture of Zayn and his wife smiling happily.

Something crossed Zayn's mind. He began to think about the company data that was only stored on his laptop, and that laptop was at home.

Zayn immediately took his mobile phone and made a call. The ringing sound continued, but there was no reply. Zayn stood up from his desk and walked outside.

"I was really stupid to hear what our ridiculous boss said."

"A man like that has no solution. So we'll all be out of work in less than 24 hours."

"Poor me, I regret accepting his offer to work for this company that's about to go bankrupt."

Zayn overheard his employees faintly gossiping about him with angry expressions and dirty words. Zayn was now losing his authority as the owner of the small company, and even a cleaning service worker had just given him a disdainful look.

"Honey, please pick up. I have something important to talk to you about!" Zayn muttered in a slight panic as he left a voice message.

As Zayn was about to leave the company building, his eyes suddenly glanced at the television where the high-profile news about Project X was successfully introduced to the public. There was a familiar figure in the media coverage.

"Bianca? What's my wife doing there?"

Zayn lost his mind. The man had just seen his wife, Bianca, in a news report on the success of Project X's biomedical breakthrough.

"I don't know how, but it's clear that your recipes and data have been leaked to the opposing side." This sentence buzzed in Zayn's ears again. Something seemed to have connected in the man's mind.

"Bianca, are you...?"

"No, I can't just assume. I need to find out the truth."

Zayn quickly got into his car and drove to the city centre's Biomedical X project introduction event. Several thoughts and possibilities crossed Zayn's mind. All the evidence and accusations seemed to point to one person: Bianca Brown, his wife.

Zayn had been married to Bianca for the past year, and she used to help him by being a secretary at his company. She had just decided to quit her job three months ago, citing grief over the death of her best friend.

But the strange thing is that Bianca is often not at home lately, and whenever Zayn asks where his wife went, Bianca will always answer that she went to where her best friend is resting forever.

Feeling anxious and restless, Zayn finally arrived at the city centre. From the looks of it, the press session had just ended, making it easy for Zayn to enter the building without much scrutiny.

"Bianca Brown!" exclaimed Zayn as he spotted his wife chatting intimately with a man with a Champagne glass in her hand.

Zayn watched as the woman turned her head for a moment but then looked away sourly as if her hand recognised her husband's presence at all. Instead, Bianca continued to hold the man she was with and then disappeared into the crowd.

Zayn, who saw his wife behaving like that, then his temper peaked. The man immediately followed the trail where Bianca and her affair disappeared. Zayn saw them enter a room in the corner before the door began to close.

Zayn had trouble digesting what he was seeing. He hoped this was all just a bad dream and that he would wake up soon.

With his hands clenched into fists, Zayn walked into the room in the corner.

Mwah!

"What the hell!" Zayn saw that his wife, Bianca, had just had a hot kiss with a man. Without waiting any longer, Zayn threw a punch at the man.

"Fuck!" the man shouted.

"You!" When Zayn saw the man's face clearly, he remembered that he was one of the successful businessmen who had recently founded a new Startup in the biomedical field.

"Zayn, are you fucking crazy?" Zayn saw Bianca reply and scolded him as if it was his fault.

"Yes, I'm crazy. I can't get over your behaviour. You are my wife, Bianca. I love you so much, but you repay all my love with this," Zayn frustratedly replied.

"And you, Benjamin, are an idiot chasing someone else's wife. It's so unprofessional and unethical," Zayn added in annoyance.

The reality of the world had just slapped Zayn in a big way. But the couple seemed completely innocent. Instead, they both burst out laughing in front of Zayn.

"Mate, wake up. It's time for you to wake up to reality. It seems some people don't face the reality these days," Benjamin said after wiping his slightly bleeding lip.

The man threw some documents to Zayn, which confused him.

"Sign this document, and you will divorce your wife and receive compensation from me," Benjamin said proudly.