When the CEO Lost Everything

Only Mine

Ethan Brooks sits calmly, holding a remote control with a blinking red indicator light. The warm smile that has long deceived all the business elites of London is gone.

“You’re overconfident, Evelyn,” Ethan whispers, his voice calm but laden with a deadly threat. “You think you’ve taken control of your own fate after destroying Damian Blackwood? That fool was just a pawn I used to break your wings. You’ve never really been out of my grasp.”

Evelyn stares at the control device in Ethan’s hand without blinking. There’s no trace of fear on her face, no panic the man in front of her expects. She crosses her legs, smoothing the folds of her luxurious gown with very elegant movements.

“The pawn you mentioned has lost everything, Ethan,” she replies, her voice flat.

Ethan chuckles, his laugh sounding offbeat and terrifying inside the private jet’s cabin.

“Trapped myself?” Ethan shakes his head. “No, Evelyn. This is the pinnacle of my success. You’re here, carrying the patent encryption key to your mother’s cancer drug. Just one digital signature from you on this tablet, and the autopilot system will take us safely to Geneva as partners of the global pharmaceutical industry.”

“If I refuse?”

Ethan moves his thumb toward the red button on a small remote. The indicator light blinks faster, signaling real danger.

“Then the fuel system will automatically lock,” Ethan says, his eyes filled with a manic gleam. “The pilot will relinquish control, and we’ll crash into the icy ocean below.”

Evelyn gazes directly into Ethan’s eyes. Seconds feel like slow torture. The air inside the cabin grows thinner, but her mind stays sharp as a knife’s edge.

“You always think you know me well, Ethan,” she says softly. She reaches for the coffee cup Ethan offered earlier, pouring the remaining liquid onto the porcelain fold-out table. “You think I’m a weak woman who needs protection, just like I was trapped in the Blackwood family’s lies.”

Ethan furrows his brow, disliking the extraordinary calm radiating from his former partner.

“What do you mean?” Ethan asks suspiciously.

“I mean,” Evelyn replies, lifting her gaze, “you’re so focused on your own villainous scenarios that you forget to check who’s actually controlling this flight.”

Ethan is stunned. He repeatedly presses the red button in panic, but there’s no response.

“What are you doing?!” Ethan shouts, losing his composure for the first time.

“Installing a military-grade signal jammer made by Ardent Biopharma,” Evelyn answers calmly. “The radio signal from the small device in your hand can’t penetrate the cabin’s walls, let alone send commands to the cockpit.”

Ethan’s face flushes red. His jaw muscles tighten as he realizes his threat device has become a useless piece of junk. He suddenly stands, gripping the edge of the porcelain table so hard that his veins bulge.

“The pilots in front are highly paid people, Evelyn!” Ethan gasps, breathing heavily. “They have strict orders to change the flight route if I don’t confirm every ten minutes!”

“Sorry to interrupt your conversation, President Ashford,” says the tactical security chief from Ardent with a steady voice. “The cockpit has been fully secured for ten minutes before we take off from Heathrow. The man you bribed has been dismissed.”

Evelyn stands up. She straightens her elegant gown, looking down at Ethan with a gaze full of pity for the man who has destroyed her past.

“You call Damian a fool, Ethan,” she says coldly, her voice piercing to the bone. “But at least Damian destroys himself through blindness and arrogance. You destroy me with full awareness, hiding behind a mask of goodness for ten years.”

“Evelyn, listen to me,” Ethan pleads, his voice suddenly lowering, desperate, trying to step closer. His madness shifts into genuine despair. “Everything I’ve done is for you! Men like Damian are never worthy of someone like you! Only I can give you power and protection!”

“I’ve never needed your protection, Ethan,” Evelyn cuts him off sharply. “I will never be a trophy for your madness.”

Evelyn signals gently with her hand. Two Ardent tactical guards step forward and seize Ethan from both sides. The man once celebrated as Europe’s most generous conglomerate is forced to kneel on the cabin floor, his hands cuffed tightly with steel restraints.

“You can’t imprison me, Evelyn!” Ethan screams hysterically, struggling to break free from their grip. “The Brooks family has immense legal influence in the UK and Switzerland! Without physical transaction evidence in Zurich, you’ll never touch me in court!”

Evelyn approaches Ethan kneeling at her feet. She takes his smartphone from his pocket, then points it at his face to unlock the facial recognition encryption.

“The physical evidence isn’t in Zurich anymore, Ethan,” she says, staring at the screen now fully unlocked, revealing all the secret conversations and shell accounts in the Cayman Islands. “Right now, Swiss federal police and Interpol are raiding Brooks Medical Technologies headquarters in Geneva based on the data I sent from the air ten minutes ago.”

The last of Ethan’s courage evaporates, leaving a pallid, corpse-like look. He realizes his entire business empire, reputation, and future are shattered in just one night.

“Take him to the back compartment and secure him until we land in Geneva,” Evelyn orders coldly.

The guards drag Ethan, weak and defeated, toward the back of the plane. His screams of pain and regret slowly fade as the door to the compartment is closed tightly.

The private jet of Ardent Biopharma lands smoothly on the runway of Geneva International Airport. The cold mountain air welcomes the new ruler of Europe’s pharmaceutical industry.

Outside the runway, a dozen Swiss federal police cars and the armored convoy of Ardent Biopharma marked vehicles are on standby with sirens blaring. As the plane door opens, Ethan Brooks is escorted down under tight international police supervision, greeted by the flashing lights of media cameras gathered at the airport perimeter.

Evelyn steps off the plane gracefully. Her blue gown is covered by a thick cream fur coat that emphasizes her dominance and power.

Arthur Ashford, waiting beside a luxury limousine, greets his granddaughter with a proud smile and tears of joy.

“You’ve done everything brilliantly, Evelyn,” Arthur says, clutching her hand tightly. “The Ashford name is now at the highest peak, free of any shadow from the past.”

Evelyn embraces her grandfather warmly. “All that suffering is over, Grandpa. Now it’s time for us to start a new chapter for Ardent.”

But just as Evelyn prepares to enter the limousine for the press conference at the new central laboratory, an intelligence officer from Ardent rushes toward them with an urgent encrypted document marked in red.

“President Ashford!” he calls breathlessly. “We just received an emergency message from the Scottish police.”

“What is it?” Evelyn frowns slightly.

“The old Blackwood estate in Braemar, where Damian Blackwood and his mother live, was hit by a major landslide caused by last night’s snowstorm,” he reports. “Local rescue teams found Mrs. Victoria Blackwood critically injured, but Damian Blackwood is reported missing, swept into an icy river canyon.”