Hearing My Husband’s Secret Thoughts, and Let Karma Find Him Chapter 02
By the time we reached the hospital, the hallway was packed with Sullivan relatives.
My father lay in the ICU, tubes and monitors attached all over his body.
Ryan wrapped an arm around me, his eyes red as he begged the doctor to use the best treatment available.
“Don’t be scared, Tessa. I’m here. I’ll hold everything together, no matter what happens.” He patted my back.
[I wonder if the old bastard made a will yet. I need to pay off those stubborn shareholders as soon as possible.]
Hearing him calculate all of that in his head, I bit down on my lower lip.
“What are you crying for? Your father isn’t dead yet!”
My aunt walked over and pointed at me as she snapped, “Tessa Sullivan, what do you even know how to do besides spend money? Now that your father is down, what happens to the company? As far as I’m concerned, Ryan is the only one who can hold it together!”
Ryan stepped forward.
“Please don’t worry. Your brother gave me the chance that made my career. During this time, I’ll stabilize Apex Group and make sure the company’s stock price isn’t affected in the slightest.”
The relatives nodded one after another. A few board members even said on the spot that they were willing to transfer some of their voting proxies to him.
I lowered my head, tears dripping onto the floor.
“I’m going to wash my face.” I pulled myself free from Ryan’s hand and went into the restroom.
After locking the door behind me, I dropped the crying expression and walked to the sink with a blank face.
I took out another hidden phone, entered a string of commands, and logged into my private system.
Apex Group’s most important patents, source code, and offshore accounts had never been under my father’s name.
They all belonged to a hacker and systems architect operating overseas: me.
My father had secretly handed me the company’s greatest trump card long ago.
In a sense, the Apex Group everyone saw was little more than a glorified contractor.
My fingers flew across the screen as I entered Apex’s internal financial system and began auditing the records.
Ten minutes later, a hidden fund-flow chart appeared on the screen.
Ryan had secretly moved nearly $70 million in liquid funds out of the company’s accounts.
He had also borrowed $400 million from loan sharks and poured it into a dead-end overseas tech venture.
That idiot had been trying to make one massive gamble and turn Apex completely into his own empire.
Someone pounded hard on the restroom door.
“Tessa Sullivan! Did you die in there, you damn jinx? Get the hell out here!”
I turned off the phone and opened the door. At some point, Ryan’s mother had arrived from her rural hometown.
She was standing in the hallway with two squawking live hens in her hands.
She shoved a thermos in front of me.
“Drink it! This is a fertility tonic I got from a backwoods faith healer! Your father is practically dead, so why aren’t you giving the Lawson family an heir and turning our luck around? Three years of marriage and still no baby. You’re nothing but a useless barren hen taking up space!”
The passing nurses all turned to look. I clenched my fists.
I pressed a hand to my stomach and stared at her. “This is the ICU. Take your chickens and get out.”
“How dare you talk back to me?” Ryan’s mother smacked the side of the thermos.
“My son is about to take over that lousy company of yours, and you still dare to put on those spoiled-heiress airs with me?”
I turned to look at Ryan. He looked troubled.
“Tessa, Mom is only doing this for our own good. It wasn’t easy for her to come all this way from her rural hometown. Just appreciate the thought and take a sip.”
[Hurry up and drink it. Drink it and die, you barren bitch. Once I take control, the first thing I’ll do is have my mom slap the hell out of you.]
I gritted my teeth hard.
It wasn’t time to turn on him yet. I was going to make sure he lost everything.
I reached out, took the thermos, closed my eyes, and forced down a big mouthful.
