The Outcast Son In Law's Wrath

Alliance of Hatred

By 2 AM, Dragon City was not sleeping. It was hating.

Ethan's video had hit 50 MILLION views.

#ChloeCarterTrash was trending number one.

But in the Carter family mansion, there was no internet only screaming.

Chloe burst through the doors, barefoot, red dress torn, feet bleeding, cheek swollen, rain dripping from her hair. She looked like a ghost.

Her mother, Patricia Carter, was waiting in the living room with her uncle, her cousins, the board members all watching Ethan's video on the big TV on loop.

The video paused at the exact moment Liam held Victoria and said: "The engagement stands."

Patricia stood up, her face twisted with disgust and fear.

"YOU!" Patricia screamed, pointing at Chloe, her voice shaking. "You did this! You divorced him when he was poor! Now he is the richest man in the world and you went to beg him in a red dress like a prostitute! You made us all look like trash!"

Her uncle slammed his fist on the table. "Carter Group stock is down 60% tonight! Partners are calling to cancel! Your father's hospital says they will stop treatment at 9 AM! All because of you and that trash son-in-law!"

"He is not trash anymore!" Chloe screamed back, tears mixing with rain. "He is Liam Cole! Heir of Cole Global! He owns the hospital! He agreed to let my father die!"

"Then you should have knelt longer!" Patricia slapped her hard on the same cheek Victoria slapped. Tears filled Patricia's own eyes as she did it. "You should have licked Victoria Sterling's shoes! You should have begged! Instead you fought her! Now we all die with your father! Your father will die because of your pride!"

For the first time in her life, the Carter family the family who had humiliated Liam for three years hated the Cole family more than they hated Liam.

"He made us wash his feet?" her cousin shouted. "Now his grandfather wants us to die? Who does the Cole family think they are? God?"

Chloe collapsed on the floor, her red dress in a puddle, everyone shouting over her. No one helped her up. No one touched her.

Until the doorbell rang.

DING DONG.

Everyone froze.

The doors opened.

Ethan Blackwood walked in.

Nose bandaged, suit expensive again, but his eyes were crazy with revenge. Behind him, ten lawyers in black suits carried briefcases. And behind them, his father Thomas Blackwood the old billionaire Liam had bankrupted with one phone call.

Thomas Blackwood looked at the crying Carter family and smiled coldly.

"We have the same enemy," Thomas said. "Liam Cole."

Patricia stared, wiping tears. "Blackwood? You? Yesterday you tried to buy our company for nothing

"Yesterday, Liam Cole was a poor son-in-law," Thomas cut her off. "Today, he froze my accounts, broke my son's nose, and made my family kneel in front of the whole city. My hatred for him is bigger than my hatred for you."

Ethan walked straight to Chloe, who was still on the floor, and crouched down. He lifted her chin with his finger, looking at her swollen cheek.

"Chloe," he whispered, his voice sweet but venomous, "I loved you for five years. You chose trash over me. Now the trash became a king and dumped you. Let me help you kill the king."

He stood up and opened a briefcase. Inside a contract and a USB drive.

"The contract: Blackwood Group will inject 500 million into Carter Group tonight. Pay your father's hospital bill. Save your company. In return — 51% of Carter Group becomes mine. We merge. Carter-Blackwood Group."

He held up the USB drive.

"And this? This is the second video. The one I didn't post yet."

He plugged it into the TV.

The video played — dark, shaky footage from 15 years ago. A police file, leaked. A 13-year-old boy tied to a chair in a warehouse, bag over his head, screaming, bleeding, a knife at his throat. Subtitle: LIAM COLE KIDNAPPED 2011 COLE FAMILY PAID 500 MILLION RANSOM.

"This," Ethan grinned, "is Liam Cole's nightmare. His trauma. His weakness. If I post this, the whole world will see the heir of Cole Global is a scared, crying little boy. His stock will crash. His grandfather's enemies will come. He will be helpless again."

The Carter family stared, eyes wide.

Patricia gasped, covering her mouth. "My God... that's... that's Liam?"

Ethan looked at Chloe, at her hatred, at her tears.

"So, Chloe Carter," he said softly, extending his hand to pull her up from the floor, "Will you join me? Marry me tonight. Merge our families. And tomorrow at 9 AM, we destroy Liam Cole and Victoria Sterling together. We make them kneel."

Chloe looked at Ethan's hand. She looked at her mother Patricia, who was nodding furiously through tears, whispering, "Do it, Chloe, save your father..." She looked at her dying father's photo on the wall.

Her hands clenched into fists, her nails digging into her bleeding palms. Her hatred for the Coles burned hotter than her pain.

She reached for Ethan's hand.

"I agree," she whispered, voice full of venom and tears. "I will marry you."

At that exact same moment, across the city, in the Cole Estate, Liam stood alone in the rain on the rooftop, watching Ethan's first video go viral, his bloody hands still shaking from his nightmare.

Butler Chen ran up, soaking wet, holding a tablet, face pale.

"Young Master! Bad news! The Carter family just"

Liam took the tablet.

On it a LIVE press release, posted one second ago:

CARTER GROUP x BLACKWOOD GROUP MERGER WEDDING ANNOUNCEMENT: CHLOE CARTER TO MARRY ETHAN BLACKWOOD TOMORROW.

And below it, a preview of the second video young Liam tied to a chair, crying.

Liam's grey eyes, which had been empty all night, finally filled with something.

Pure, cold, mind-blowing wrath.

Edward Cole appeared behind him, holding an umbrella, smiling darkly.

"Now you see, grandson? Love makes you weak. Hatred makes you a king. Tomorrow, your ex-wife marries the man you crippled, and your nightmare becomes the news. What will you do?"

" he whispered, his voice so low the rain itself seemed to stop, "I will burn both families to the ground."