Burning the Patents of Betrayal Chapter 09
“Chuck said, as long as Adam’s reputation was ruined, he’d give me a ton of money! Julie, it’s not my fault! He forced me! Please don’t come after me!”
Crying, Sabrina crawled toward me, trying to grab my leg.
“Adam, I was wrong! I’ll listen to you from now on! I’m your sister-you can’t abandon me!”
Hearing this, Julie looked at Chuck in disbelief.
“Chuck, how could you do something like this?”
Seeing that everything had been exposed, Chuck dropped the pretense altogether.
His eyes reddened as he roared at Julie, “Why can’t I? Because your heart has always belonged to Adam! I want him ruined–I want him gone! Then the spot as your husband will be mine!”
“You’re delusional!”
Furious beyond restraint, Julie slapped him hard across the face.
A bright red handprint immediately appeared on Chuck’s cheek.
Clutching his face, his expression twisted into something wild and venomous.
“And what do you think you are? Sneaking around behind your husband’s back, getting knocked up with a bastard child-if it weren’t for money, who would want to serve a worn-out woman like you?”
He shoved her.
She stumbled and fell directly into the busy roadway.
A car came speeding toward her, unable to brake in time. A dull, heavy thud echoed.
Julie’s body was flung through the air like a kite with its string cut, crashing onto the pavement several yards away. A pool of glaring red blood spread rapidly beneath her.
For a heartbeat, the scene fell into stunned silence-then erupted into screams of terror.
An ambulance wailed as it rushed in.
In the end, Julie miscarried. Her uterus was removed, leaving her permanently unable to have children.
Her parents firmly pressed charges against Chuck for assault. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Karma, it seemed, had found its mark.
I couldn’t help but feel a trace of bitter amusement.
From that point on, the Black family declined rapidly.
Realizing Julie would never find someone to take over for her again, they turned back to me, begging desperately for forgiveness, hoping I would show mercy for old times’ sake and help the Black family recover.
I didn’t even give them a meeting.
During that time, under my leadership and with James’s full support, Ford Corporation rose once again to the top of the city’s business world.
To solidify our alliances, I married a woman of equal standing from a prominent family.
Not long after, we had three healthy, beautiful children-the future heirs of the Ford family.
Life became steady and fulfilling.
And yet, Julie refused to let go.
Every year on my birthday, she would have someone deliver letters and gifts, their lines filled with nostalgia, glossing over all the betrayal and filth that had once existed between us.
I never read them. I burned them without a second glance.
My wife never asked. She would simply take my hand gently in hers.
James had become both a mentor and a trusted friend. Whenever he saw this, he would tease me with a grin, “Mt. Ford, your romantic baggage really never seems to end. After all these years, have you truly let it go? I hear Julie’s life isn’t so great these days.”
I smiled faintly.
“That has nothing to do with me. The only people I’m responsible for now are my wife and my children.”
James nodded in understanding and changed the subject.
“Where to next? Where do you want to expand our business empire?”
I walked to the floor-to-ceiling window and pointed toward the distant horizon where the sea met the sky.
“There.”
Following my gaze, James smiled.
We stood side by side, looking out at the boundless blue, as if we could already see the vast and brilliant empire that awaited us in the future.
