CHAPTER 3
1404 Words
“Find out who did this! NOW!”
Alexander roared, slamming his fist so hard against his desk that the expensive crystal pen holder toppled over and shattered into pieces. His face was red, veins popping out on his neck, eyes wild with pure rage and panic.
Around him, the office was total chaos. People were running back and forth, phones ringing nonstop, shouting orders that nobody could hear. Every single computer screen in the whole building was still frozen on that same damn message. Bright red letters, glowing like a taunt, burning into his retinas.
WHAT YOU THREW AWAY… WAS YOUR LIFELINE.
“What the hell does that even mean?” he spat out, pacing back and forth like a caged animal. “Who is messing with me? Is it Hawthorne? That bastard Adrian? He’s the only one crazy enough to try and take me down like this!”
His assistant, Mark, stood near the door, looking terrified, clutching a stack of papers tight against his chest. He looked like he was about to pass out, his face pale as a sheet.
“Sir… we… we checked, sir. It wasn’t Hawthorne Group. They’re just as confused as we are. Actually… everyone in the business world is watching this. News is spreading fast, stock prices are dropping like rocks… we’re losing millions every minute this system is down.”
Alexander stopped pacing, running a hand through his messy hair, breathing hard. This wasn’t just a glitch. It was an attack. A direct, brutal attack that hit right at his core. And the timing… God, the timing.
It happened the exact second Evelyn walked out of his house.
A cold shiver ran down his spine. He tried to shake the thought away immediately. No. Impossible. She was nothing. Just a quiet, poor girl who couldn’t even afford decent clothes. What could she possibly have to do with this?
“Get IT back in here,” he snapped, voice shaking slightly. “I want names, IP addresses, anything. Someone is going to pay for this.”
Mark hesitated. He didn’t move. He just stood there, shifting his weight nervously, looking at the papers in his hands like they were cursed.
“Mark! Did you hear me? Move!”
“Sir… there’s… there’s something else.” Mark’s voice cracked. He stepped forward slowly, like he was walking to his own execution. “While the system was down… we had to pull all the old physical records to try and find backup data. We were checking the main ledgers, the private funding accounts… the ones that have kept us liquid during every crisis for the last five years. The anonymous investors we could never trace…”
Alexander froze. A weird, uneasy feeling settled heavy in his gut. He walked closer, grabbing the papers Mark was holding. His hands actually trembled as he looked down at the pages.
Lines and lines of transactions. Massive amounts of money. Billions. Transfers made silently, always arriving exactly when Knight Group was on the edge of collapse. Saving him. Saving his father. Saving this entire empire time and time again.
He’d always called it luck. He’d always thought his family was just that powerful.
He read the final note scribbled at the bottom of the report, found buried deep in an old contract file.
Source of Funds: HAYES HOLDINGS LTD.
Alexander blinked. Once. Twice. His brain refused to process it.
“Hayes?” he whispered, the word coming out strangled. “Hayes… as in… the Hayes Family? The richest family in the country? The legends that practically own half the world?”
Mark nodded, looking down at his shoes, too scared to look his boss in the eye. “Yes, sir. And… and there’s a clause here, sir. It says the funding agreement was conditional. It states clearly… the support continues only while the marriage remains valid. The second the marriage contract is terminated… all financial support ceases immediately, and all previous investments are recalled in full.”
The room spun around Alexander.
While the marriage remains valid.
He grabbed the edge of the desk to stay standing. Memories started hitting him, one after another, fast and hard as bullets.
Evelyn.
Evelyn, acting weirdly calm this morning when he handed her the divorce papers. Evelyn, smiling that strange, knowing smile before she walked out. Evelyn saying… “Everything you built is going to crumble.”
And then that message on the screen… WHAT YOU THREW AWAY… WAS YOUR LIFELINE.
“No…” He breathed out, shaking his head violently. “No, that’s impossible. Evelyn’s last name is Hayes, yeah… but it’s a common name! She’s poor! She lived like a beggar in my house! Her parents were nobodies… she told me herself!”
He was practically yelling now, desperate for it not to be true.
“Sir… she lied.”
Alexander froze. He looked up sharply at Mark.
“W-what?”
“Sir… I did some digging while the servers were rebooting. Just… just to be sure. Because… well, the timing was too perfect.” Mark swallowed hard. “Evelyn Hayes… she didn’t come from a poor family. The background check your mother did three years ago? It was… modified. Faked. She hid everything. Sir… Evelyn Hayes… is the sole heiress to the entire Hayes Empire. She owns it all.”
Silence.
Absolute, deafening silence filled the room.
Alexander stood there, papers slipping from his numb fingers, fluttering to the floor around his feet.
The poor wife. The burden. The girl he treated like dirt, insulted, ignored, cheated on, and finally threw out like garbage…
She owned the bank.
She owned his company.
She owned him.
And today… he had signed the paper that cut his own throat.
He thought back to the last thing she said to him at the door. That warning. That promise.
“You didn’t just divorce a wife today. You divorced your biggest supporter… and the only person in this whole world who carries your blood.”
His blood…
Suddenly, a terrifying realization hit him so hard he almost fell to his knees.
He remembered how she held her stomach all morning. How her clothes were a little looser than usual. How she never drank alcohol, always ate healthy, was tired all the time… things he’d never even bothered to notice before.
“Call her,” he rasped out, voice barely a sound. “Get me her number. Now!”
“I… I tried, sir. She blocked you. She blocked everyone.”
Alexander rushed to the window, looking out over the city. Far, far away, in the distance, right on the horizon, he saw a sleek private jet lifting off from the airport, climbing fast into the clouds, silver and proud.
He knew. He just knew. She was on that plane. Leaving. Taking everything with her. Leaving him here with nothing but the ruins of his own arrogance.
He gripped the frame of the window so hard his knuckles turned white, his heart hammering against his ribs like it wanted to break free.
“Evelyn…” he whispered, eyes burning, filled with a mix of rage, fear, and a sudden, sharp ache in his chest that felt like grief.
“You said… you said I threw away my secret.”
He turned back to the room, looking at the frozen screens, at the message that had destroyed his whole life in one second.
He thought about the signature at the bottom of the message, the tiny little ‘R’ he hadn’t even noticed before.
“Mark…” he said slowly, a horrible, dark feeling growing in his stomach. “Pull every single file we have on her. Every photo. Every date. I want to know where she went. I want to know who she’s with… and I want to know… who the hell that ‘R’ stands for.”
Because deep down… deep down where the fear was born… he already knew.
He knew exactly what she meant by his blood.
And the terrifying part?
He realized… the war wasn’t starting.
The war had already been going on… and he was already losing.
Alexander is going crazy digging into her past, finds out she was best friends with Adrian Hawthorne since childhood… and then sees a photo leaked online from the airport: Evelyn laughing, holding hands with Adrian… looking happier and richer than she ever was with him.
- Writer
