The Tyrant's Return : From Beggar to Sovereign

Chapter 10: The Fall of the Miller Empire

The phone slipped out of Chloe’s hand and dropped onto her desk with a loud clatter. The terrified voice of Mr. Davis was still screaming from the tiny speaker, but Chloe could no longer hear the words clearly. Her ears were buzzing with a high, painful sound. Her face turned entirely white, and her breath became short and shallow.

Frozen by order of the Vance Group.

The words repeated over and over in her head like a recurring nightmare. How was this possible? The Vance Group was a giant monster that only dealt with international billionaires. Why would they suddenly care about a small family company like the Miller Group?

Before she could think, the door to her office burst open with a loud bang. Her mother, Beatrice, rushed inside. Beatrice was no longer looking like a proud peacock. Her expensive hair was a total mess, and her face was red from crying. She ran straight to Chloe’s desk, her hands shaking violently.

"Chloe! Something terrible is happening!" Beatrice yelled, clutching her chest as she gasped for air. "I just looked at the business news channel on the television screen! Our family stock is crashing! It is dropping down like a stone thrown from a cliff!"

Chloe quickly grabbed her computer mouse and clicked on the financial market page. Her eyes stretched wide with pure horror. The bright red line on the screen was pointing straight down.

Ten percent. Fifty percent. Eighty percent.

In less than three minutes, the value of the Miller Group dropped all the way down to absolute zero. Nobody in the entire city wanted to buy their shares. Every single business partner was dumping their stock like it was toxic poison. The phone on Chloe’s desk began to ring repeatedly, the bright lights flashing like a bomb about to explode. All their suppliers, their delivery drivers, and their factory workers were calling to demand their money right now.

"Mother, we are totally ruined," Chloe whispered, her voice completely hollow and dead. "Our bank accounts are locked. Our stock is worth nothing. We cannot even pay for the lights in this building."

"No! This cannot be!" Beatrice screamed, grabbing Chloe’s shoulders and shaking her. "We just got rid of the twenty million dollar debt last night! Ethan took the blame! We are supposed to be free and rich!"

Right then, another person walked into the office. It was Julian Vance. His face was still completely wrapped in thick white medical bandages, making him look like an ugly mummy. He walked with a heavy limp, but his eyes were still full of his usual arrogant pride. He saw the two women crying, and he let out a muffled, confident snort behind his mouth cloth.

"Do not cry, my beauties," Julian said, his voice thick and hard to understand because of his broken jaw. He walked over and patted Chloe’s shaking back. "I just heard about your stock crash. It is just a temporary glitch in the market system. Some low-level hater is trying to scare you. But you forget who my family is. My father controls the largest real estate empire in this province. We own twenty luxury apartment towers and three major shopping malls."

Chloe looked up at him, a tiny spark of hope returning to her teary eyes. "Julian, can your father really help us? We need five million dollars right now just to stop the banks from locking our doors."

"Five million is pocket change for the Vance real estate company," Julian bragged loudly, tossing his head back with absolute certainty. "My father loves me. I will call him right now and tell him to send a truck of cash to your office. Once my family steps in, whoever is attacking your stock will run away in fear. The Miller family will stand tall, and we will still get married next week."

Beatrice clapped her hands together, letting out a loud sigh of relief. "Oh, Young Master Julian! You are truly a savior! You are a thousand times better than that useless dog Ethan! He is probably sitting in a jail cell right now, crying over the twenty million dollar debt he signed!"

Julian smiled proudly under his bandages. He pulled out his expensive gold smartphone and dialed his father's private number. He turned on the speakerphone so Chloe and Beatrice could hear the grand rescue plan.

The phone rang twice, and then a loud, frantic voice exploded from the speaker. It was Julian's father, and he sounded like a man whose house was burning down.

"Julian! Where are you?" his father screamed, his voice full of pure madness and terror. "Are you with those trashy Millers? Did you offend someone from the supreme family line?"

Julian frowned, his pride slightly hurt. "Father, what are you talking about? I am just helping Chloe fix a small stock problem. I need you to send five million dollars to her office right now."

"Are you an absolute idiot?" his father roared so loudly that the phone speaker cracked with static. "We do not have five million dollars! We do not even have five dollars! Ten minutes ago, a mysterious buyer bought out every single one of our bank loans from the central reserve! The buyer called in all our debts immediately! Our apartment towers, our shopping malls, our family mansion, everything has been seized! The Vance real estate empire is completely bankrupt! We are being kicked out onto the street this very second!"

Julian’s gold phone slipped from his fingers, crashing hard onto the carpeted floor. He felt like a giant lightning bolt had struck his head. His body went completely stiff, his eyes staring blankly at the wall. His family’s multi-million dollar empire was gone in a single heartbeat.

Beatrice fell back onto the office sofa, fainting from the pure shock. Chloe covered her face with her raw, red hands, weeping uncontrollably. They thought they had escaped the trap by forcing Ethan to sign the waiver. They had no idea that they had just walked into a much larger cage.

At that exact same moment, on the top floor of the seventy-story Vance Group skyscraper, the grand master office was completely quiet.

The room was vast, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows that showed the entire city layout below. The sun could not penetrate the thick, tinted glass, leaving the office in a dark, majestic shadow.

Ethan sat behind a massive desk made of rare black wood. He was wearing his midnight blue suit, his hands resting calmly on the polished surface. Thomas stood beside him, holding a silver tray with a collection of official legal documents.

"Young Master," Thomas said, bowing his head with deep respect. "The operation is complete. We have successfully bought all the bank loans of the Miller family and the Julian Vance branch. They no longer owe money to the banks. They owe every single penny directly to you."

Ethan looked down at the paper on his desk. It was an absolute, final eviction notice for every piece of land, house, and office building owned by the Millers and Julian's family.

Ethan picked up a heavy gold pen. A slow, cold smile appeared on his lips, his eyes flashing with a ruthless, chilling fire. He pressed the pen down and signed his name across the bottom of the page.

He slid the document back to Thomas, his voice sounding like a final judgement from a dark god.

"Seize their properties," Ethan ordered. "Every single one.”