The Rejected Live-in Husband Returns

Part VII: A Disastrous Downfall

The silence in the hotel room stretched, thick and heavy. Leo studied the woman before him. 

Her answer hung in the air, a stark contradiction to everything else about her. Even sitting on the edge of a hotel bed, weakened and draped in a borrowed robe, she carried herself with an innate grace. 

Her posture was straight, her hands, though trembling slightly, were elegantly slender with well-kept nails. Her features were finely carved, and her eyes, despite their current distress, held a clarity and intelligence that spoke of education and refinement. 

This was not someone born into hardship or accustomed to life on the streets. She had the aura of a queen. 

Seeing the clear doubt in his eyes, she offered a weak, bitter smile. It was a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. 

“You’re wondering how someone like me ends up with nowhere to go,” she said, her voice low. She took a shaky breath, as if steeling herself to recite a painful epitaph. 

“My name is Elara. 

Elara Parkinson. Until a month ago, I was the CEO of Aura Tech.”

The name sparked a faint, distant recognition in Leo’s mind. 

Aura Tech. 

He’d seen it on reports, in the endless streams of financial data that crossed his desk.

Elara continued, her gaze fixed on a crack in the wall, seeing a different scene entirely. “We were on the cusp of our IPO. Years of work. A revolutionary data encryption model. We had the investors, the momentum… everything. We were next in line for approval.” She swallowed hard. 

“Then, without warning, we were pushed out. Booted from the queue entirely. The official reason was ‘unforeseen regulatory complications.’ But the message was clear. Someone with more power wanted our spot.”

Leo’s brow furrowed slightly. He remembered now. When he had instructed Olivia to ensure a smooth, expedited path for Amelia’s company, Apex Dynamics, through the regulatory labyrinth, he’d been focused on a single objective: clear the way. He’d given a general order. But in his mind’s eye, he recalled the listing schedule. Aura Tech had been directly ahead of Apex in the lineup.

A cold knot began to form in his stomach. A delayed IPO was a setback, a severe financial blow, but it shouldn’t have been a death sentence for a company with solid fundamentals. 

“A company doesn’t simply collapse because of a delay,” he said, more to himself than to her. “Investors might get nervous, but if the technology was as promising as you say…”

“It was a bloodbath,” Elara interrupted, her voice hollow. “The investors who pulled out weren’t just nervous. They were coerced. They received calls, threats about their other business interests. It was a coordinated takedown. 

Within two weeks, every major backer was gone. The vultures circled, buying our patents for pennies. I lost everything. The company, my apartment… everything.” She wrapped her arms around herself. 

“Those men today… they were sent by a loan shark. A final, desperate debt I couldn’t cover.”

As she spoke, Leo’s eyes flickered to Olivia, who was standing quietly by the door. His subordinate had been uncharacteristically still throughout this exchange. And now, Leo saw it—a bead of sweat tracing a path down Olivia’s face. 

The lady’s posture was rigid, her gaze fixed on the floor as if hoping it would swallow her whole.

In that instant, the pieces clicked into place with a sickening clarity. He hadn’t just asked Olivia to ‘smooth the process.’ He had unleashed an overzealous subordinate who, in a misguided attempt to curry ultimate favor, hadn’t just cleared a path—she had scorched the earth. Instead of navigating the bureaucracy, he had strong-armed and threatened, bulldozing every company in the way, including Aura Tech, to ensure Apex Dynamics had not just a clear lane, but a vacant highway. The ‘coordinated takedown’ Elara described wasn’t just business; it was a ruthless execution ordered in his name.

A cold, quiet fury began to burn in Leo’s chest. It was a different anger from what he’d felt with Amelia. This was colder, sharper, born of a profound failure of oversight. His desire to give Amelia a gift had inadvertently destroyed an innocent woman’s life.

He shot to his feet so abruptly that the chair behind him scraped sharply against the floor. The sound made Elara flinch and the doctor take a step back. Olivia rushed closer, his face pale.

Leo turned to her, her body radiating a controlled but immense pressure that seemed to suck the air from the room. He didn’t raise his voice. 

When he spoke, it was low, almost a whisper, but each word was layered with the weight of absolute authority, the kind that came not from shouting, but from the unshakeable knowledge of power.

“Olivia,” he began, the name sounding like a verdict. “The company ahead of Apex. Aura Tech.” He didn’t need to phrase it as a question. The truth was in Olivia’s terrified eyes. “The people working for us, they interpreted my instructions with a creative brutality.”

Olivia opened her mouth to stammer an explanation, but Leo cut her off with a microscopic shake of his head. The gesture was more frightening than any shout.

“I don’t want excuses,” Leo continued, his voice dropping even lower, making it hard for anyone to lean in to hear, making his words inaudible. 

“I want it fixed. You will identify every investor, every partner, every entity that was pressured to abandon Aura Tech. You will contact them. You will un-pressue them. You will make it unequivocally clear that there was a… misunderstanding. And you will ensure that Aura Tech’s IPO application is reinstated, with all previous objections formally and publicly retracted.” 

He took a final step closer, his eyes locking onto Olivia’s. “Put everything back the way it was before.”

It was not a request. It was an order. Olivia simply nodded, a quick, jerky motion, his throat working soundlessly. “Immediately, sir,” she managed to choke out before turning and almost fleeing the room, already pulling out her phone.

Leo took a deep breath, forcing the mantle of the ruthless boss to fall away. 

He turned back to Elara, who was watching him with a mixture of awe and fear. He looked… different. The kind, weary man from the cemetery was gone, replaced momentarily by a figure of immense, terrifying influence.

Elara couldn't fathom whatever thing the man had told the young lady, to make her trembled vehemently. 

She just stared, speechless. Who was this man?

Seeing her expression, he awkwardly ran a hand through his hair, his tone softening considerably. “I… apologize for that,” he said, the authority gone from his voice, replaced by a gruff awkwardness. 

“I just had to make something clear! It's quite important to me! Don't worry about anything.”

“Look,” he continued, gesturing vaguely. “I have a property. A townhouse just sitting empty. If you need a place to stay… while things are being sorted out…”

The offer jolted her back to reality. She shook her head vigorously, clutching the robe tighter. “No. Absolutely not. You’ve already saved my life. I can’t… I can’t accept a house from a stranger. It’s too much.”

“It’s not a gift,” Leo insisted, a hint of frustration in his voice. He wasn’t used to being refused. “It’s a temporary solution. The house is vacant. It’s wasted space. If it can provide shelter for someone who needs it, then it’s serving a purpose.” He could see her hesitation, the war between pride and desperation in her eyes.

Without waiting for another rebuttal, he made a decision. He strode toward the door, grabbing his jacket from the hook. “I’ll take you there myself. You can see it. If you don’t like it, you can leave. No obligations.”

He paused at the threshold and looked back at the doctor. “Make sure she’s steady enough to travel.”

The doctor, who had been watching the entire scene unfold with wide eyes, quickly nodded. “Of course, sir. She is weak but mobile.” He then turned to Elara, his voice gentle but firm. “Miss Parkinson, you have been through a terrible ordeal. You need a safe, quiet place to recover. This seems… fortuitous. You should go.”

Elara looked from the doctor’s earnest face to the man standing in the doorway. He was an enigma—a man who could dispatch thugs with terrifying ease, command subordinates with a whisper, and yet offer shelter with a gruff, almost clumsy kindness. She was exhausted, terrified, and truly had nowhere else to go.

Frozen in surprise, she gave a small, almost imperceptible nod.

Without another word, Leo turned and walked out, leaving her to follow.