Chapter 21
Alan’s face drained of color.
“Say that again–what happened to the company?”
His assistant shot him a nervous glance, voice barely above a whisper.
“The company… it’s bankrupt…”
Alan grabbed him by the collar, completely losing it for the first time in his life.
“What the hell are you talking about?!”
Trembling, the assistant shoved his phone into Alan’s hands.
Alan snatched it, his eyes flying over the words on the screen.
After Alan had forced Paul’s mistress to get an abortion, she’d turned vengeful. She’d gone public, reporting Paul–Clark Corporation’s chairman–for embezzling company funds.
A special task force had swooped in almost immediately.
They’d uncovered everything: Paul had blown hundreds of millions gambling, draining seventy–three million straight from the company.
With their cash gone, Clark Corporation collapsed–dead in the water.
The amount Paul had stolen was so huge, he was facing at least ten years in prison–maybe even life.
Once it was all confirmed, the authorities pulled Paul straight from his hospital bed that same night.
Alan’s head spun as he read the full report, his vision swimming.
By the time he reached the company, the front doors were mobbed–waves of furious employees and workers demanding their pay. He had no choice but to sneak in through the back.
Inside, it was pure chaos.
When he finally made it to his office, Marie burst out, sobbing and clinging to him, wailing about what they were But Alan had no room in his head for Marie or her tears. He told his assistant to get her out of his sight.
He sank into his chair, numb, listening to the shouts and chaos downstairs.
He started calling everyone he knew, desperate to borrow some money–anything to buy a little time.
But Clark Corporation was a sinking ship. Nobody wanted to throw good money after bad. N One by one, they all turned him down.&
By nightfall, he hadn’t managed to borrow a single cent.
He wandered over to the floor–to–ceiling window, staring at the traffic below. For a split second, go black.
supposed to do now.
we thought about ending it all–just stepping off and letting everything
But then he pictured his helpless mother. He thought about Summer, stili missing. He shook himself, forcing those dark thoughts away. Over the next month, the company went into liquidation.
When it was all over, the grand Clark Tower had changed hands, and the Clark family was wiped from the
With nowhere to go, Alan remembered the houses he’d bought with Summer after they’d married.
Back then, he’d loved her so much he’d bought two villas and put both in her name.
social scene.
When they divorced, Summer wouldn’t even take the houses–she said they were tainted. She gave them back to him. Because they were technically under Summer’s name, the villas hadn’t been seized in the bankruptcy.
Alan set Mane up in one of them…
Then he drove out to the villa in the suburbs.%
He hadn’t thought about Lena in ages–not since he’d had her and those thugs drugged and dumped there.§
He’d later heard from the guards that Lena, after coming to, had stabbed several of her captors to death.
They’d tried to send her to prison, but before she could be sentenced, she was declared criminally insane.
With no other choice, Alan kept her locked up in the villa.
Inside, Lena was glued to the TV when news of Clark Corporation’s bankruptcy broke. She started laughing–loud, wild, hysterical.N Just then, the front door swung open.
A tall figure stepped inside.
The second she saw him, Lena’s old terror came flooding back–she started to shake.S
But then she remembered: Clark Corporation was finished Alan was powerless now. Nothing to be afraid of.
A cold, mocking smile twisted her lips.
“Alan, looks like you finally got what you deserved.”
Alan’s clothes were worn and shabby, but the menace in his eyes hadn’t faded a bit.X
Didn’t expect you to still be breathing “2
Two bitter enemies, face to face, both huming
Chapter 21
Lena remembered that night–how she’d been violated by a dozen men. Rage exploded inside her.”
She snatched a fruit knife from the table and lunged at Alan, but he dodged easily.
In a flash, he wrenched the knife from her grip and pinned her to the floor.
He slapped her, hard.
But before he could do anything else, a furious voice rang out from the doorway.%
“Stop right there!“?
