Chapter 1: The Fall Begins
Adrian didn’t wake up on the marble floor for long.
By the time the paramedics arrived, his empire had already started collapsing—just not in ways anyone in that room could see yet.
Vanessa was the first to panic.
“Adrian? Adrian!” she cried, kneeling beside him, her voice trembling—not with love, but fear.
His phone kept ringing.
Over.
And over.
And over.
I watched quietly as one of the staff picked it up and handed it to her.
“Answer it,” I said calmly.
She hesitated, then pressed it to her ear.
Her face changed in seconds.
“What do you mean the accounts are frozen?” she snapped. “That’s impossible. He has—”
She stopped.
Listening.
Her hand began to shake.
Across the room, Adrian stirred, groaning as he pushed himself up, disoriented.
“What’s going on?” he demanded.
Vanessa lowered the phone slowly.
“The banks… all of them,” she whispered. “They’ve frozen everything.”
Silence hit the room like a bomb.
Adrian laughed—a sharp, disbelieving sound. “That’s not possible. I own half those institutions.”
“No,” I said softly.
Now, he looked at me.
Really looked.
May you like
For the first time.
“You don’t own anything,” I continued. “You were allowed to.”
