Chapter 8
Dull thud of his forehead hitting the floor echoed through the silent hallway.
His voice was muffled against the ground, utterly humbled in a way that seemed impossible for the
notorious Landry heir.
“When I found out you’d lost your memory, I was… God, I was so relieved. I’m that
despicable–because it meant I could finally marry you, make you my wife like I’d always wanted.”
Jake laughed brokenly, tears dropping onto the floor.
“Those were the happiest days of my miserable twenty–seven years. I’m an atheist, but I prayed every single day that we could just… stay like that forever.”
Looking at his defeated posture, I sighed deeply.
‘Jake,” I crouched down to his level, meeting his eyes. “I’m not leaving.”
His pupils contracted sharply, his breath catching.
‘Get your revenge first.”
wiped the blood and tears from his face, my voice quiet but steady. “I want Alexander to pay for
everything.”
ake moved faster than I ever imagined possible.
He rallied twelve board members and within three days orchestrated a massive sell–off of Landry
Corp stock while freezing Alexander’s personal accounts.
Alexander suffered a stroke from the shock and ended up in intensive care.
Later, he was “relocated” to a “premium” senior living facility where staff were paid to slap him daily and force–feed him spoiled food.
Every humiliation my father had endured, Alexander suffered a hundredfold.
‘Don’t worry, he won’t die,” Jake told me with a cold smile during our video call. “I’ll make sure he lives to a hundred, with every day feeling like hell.”
Chapter 8
His first act as CEO was to unilaterally cancel the engagement with Vanessa James.
At the press conference, Vanessa rushed onto the stage in tears, demanding answers, only to be publicly rebuffed.
On camera, Jake methodically wiped his fingers where she’d touched him: “Ms. James, have some dignity.”
That night he stumbled into our bedroom drunk, his burning lips pressing against my
“I only love you. Always you.”
But I’d already made a deal with Vanessa.
neck.
While he was absorbed in a major acquisition, we escaped with my mother to a small island in the
South Pacific.
The abundant sunshine seemed to improve my mother’s condition.
Sometimes she would look at me and softly call me “Liv.”
“Thank you,” I said to Vanessa, who was painting her nails nearby.
She rolled her eyes. “If you weren’t in the picture, Jake would have noticed me.”
She jabbed a blood–red nail toward my chest. “What’s so special about you that he can’t get over?”
gazed at the horizon with a faint smile. “He’s not a good man… obsessive, unstable, hands stained
with blood.” I turned to her. “Find someone else while you can.”
‘You!” She threw the nail polish bottle in anger. “I helped you escape, and now you’re regretting it? Don’t want to give him up after all? I don’t care what kind of man he is–I love him, and without you in the way, he’ll eventually see me.”
I said quietly, “Then I wish you luck.”
[ake arrived sooner than expected.
As I returned from a walk pushing my mother’s wheelchair, I spotted Vanessa in the distance, her eyes red and swollen, facing Jake whose entire presence radiated fury.
‘Who the hell gave you the right to take her away?” he snarled.
Chapter 8
“Jake, wake up!” Vanessa sobbed desperately. “She doesn’t love you anymore! She wants out–can’t you just let her go?”
He violently shoved her hand away.
“Don’t lecture me. I will never let her go. Ever.”
Vanessa stumbled backward. “What about me? What was I to you?”
“A tool,” Jake replied emotionlessly. “Just a means to an end.”
The color drained from Vanessa’s face. “Just… a tool?”
Her voice trembled. “Then what the hell was all my love for?!”
