Chapter 4

'How fascinating.' The corners of my lips curled up.

Yet Ethan didn't know when to stop. Striding up to me like a victor, he got right in my face.

"Why don't you just stay in the storage room and watch how I take your woman and your company away from you, you loser?"

The moment he heard high heels clicking around the corner, he grabbed my tie, shoved me hard, and took a step back with a deeply aggrieved look.

"This is what Stella wanted! How can you blame me?!"

"Alan, what do you think you're doing?!" Stella rushed into the room, instantly placing herself in front of Ethan to protect him.

"Starting today, you have no right to point fingers at Ethan ever again!"

She slammed a stack of documents onto the desk in front of me. "I've made my decision. I'm transferring fifteen percent of the company's shares to Ethan. He's going to be a shareholder now.

"As for you, sign this and hand over all your equity. Otherwise, I will revoke all copyright licenses for my artwork immediately! Our partnership ends here, and the company dissolves!"

I stared into her eyes.

Ethan had traded three hundred thousand dollars for fifteen percent of the company. Meanwhile, the company I had painstakingly built over five years was being threatened with dissolution by the woman I had loved for six years, all to force me to surrender my forty-nine percent stake.

She wanted me completely out of the picture.

"Don't fight it, Alan. Ethan looked into it yesterday. There's no law in El Tricolor that says you have to get married by thirty or face an arranged marriage. I know you packed your bags on purpose just to make me mad and get my attention.

"Be a good boy and sign over the shares. Work under Ethan to manage my artwork properly, and there will still be a place for you in my company.

"Maybe then I'll consider becoming your wife again. Otherwise, you can get out on the streets and be a homeless bum."

I laughed. Any last shred of pity I had held for her before leaving was now completely gone.

I picked up the pen and signed my name on the equity transfer agreement.

What she didn't know was that I had already transferred those shares yesterday. Even if I had signed this document ten times, it was completely void.

I capped the pen and offered her a faint smile. "Works out great. I resign."

"What did you say?" Stella frowned, looking like she couldn't quite believe her ears.

"You don't need to fire me. I'm leaving on my own."

Ignoring her bewildered expression, I turned around and walked away, taking the company's financial books and client directory with me.

Stella rushed after me, shouting at my back in desperation, "Alan! Don't you dare regret this..."

Regret? How could I possibly regret this? Tomorrow, when I board that plane back home, she'll realize the forty-nine percent stake was no longer held by a private individual, but by an organization.

A mafia under the King family, one I was slated to inherit after marriage, that no one, whether in North Usonia or back in El Tricolor, would ever dare to cross.

When that time comes, she will be the one who regrets it.