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All Chapters of Here's to Your Forever… Without Me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 8

8 Chapters

Chapter 1

"Elisa, what tricks are you playing now?"Wade Grant stepped forward and pulled Rose Barrymore firmly behind him, shielding her."Tricks?" I set down my wine glass. "Isn't this exactly what you wanted?"Wade let out a cold laugh."You know full well that Rose has depression, yet you choose today, of all days, to put on this show of generosity. Are you trying to make everyone think she's the one who drove you away?"I looked at his face. Familiar, and yet a stranger's.It had been the same in my last life. One tear from Rose, and every accusation landed on me."Wade, don't talk to Elisa like that..." Rose tugged at his sleeve, her eyes reddening. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have come. I'll go now.""You're not going anywhere." Wade caught her wrist and held it fast.Levi Grant slammed his palm on the table and pointed at his son."You insolent brat. Do you even know what you're saying?""Dad, I'm perfectly clear-headed." Wade didn't back down an inch. "If it weren't for Elisa

Chapter 2

"Elisa, are you sure you've thought this through?"My father's brow furrowed as he looked over the share transfer agreement I'd pushed toward him. "The Grants and our businesses are tied together too deeply. Pulling our investment out of Grant Group now will cost us at least thirty percent of the returns."I picked up the black coffee in front of me and took a sip. The bitterness spread down my throat, but it cleared my head."Dad, keeping those shares will only cost us more in the long run."My father sighed and signed his name. "As long as you've thought it through. I've always worried you'd get stuck on this and do something foolish over that scoundrel."I smiled and tucked the documents into my bag. In my last life, I really had done every foolish thing imaginable, handing over the Rodneys' resources with both hands. All it had bought me was his endless torment and the ruin of my own family.After leaving the office, I stopped by the apartment and packed up every one of Wad

Chapter 3

A week later, a crisis broke out in the Cloud Project, the joint venture between the Rodneys and the Grants. The Rodneys had provided the land; the Grants, the technology. The project had already reached its final review stage when Grant Group's core data was suddenly leaked, forcing the whole thing to a halt.As the Rodneys' project lead, I marched into Grant Group's conference room with legal counsel in tow. Wade sat at the head of the table, flipping through documents, not even lifting his head."Wade, the Cloud Project's core data has been leaked. The Rodney Group stands to lose nearly 300 million dollars." I slapped a report down in front of him. "We need an explanation."Only then did Wade look up, his gaze sweeping over me and my legal team. He gave a short laugh and pushed a document across the table toward me."An explanation? Elisa, you don't actually think a 300-million-dollar hole can be pinned on someone else, do you?"I looked down at the document. A data authoriza

Chapter 4

Half a month later, a fire broke out suddenly at a warehouse on the outskirts of the city. The last of the Cloud Project's paper records were stored there. The flames spread with terrifying speed."Ms. Rodney, there are still four workers inside! The emergency exit is blocked, buried under collapsed formwork!" the project manager shouted at me.I didn't hesitate. I pulled on a gas mask, threw a soaked fire blanket over my shoulders, and ran in. The thick smoke stung so badly I could barely keep my eyes open. I felt my way through the dark to the trapped workers and led them toward the emergency exit.Suddenly, the load-bearing steel frame overhead groaned."Watch out!"Someone slammed into me. I stumbled and hit the ground. I turned around.It was Wade. He'd thrown his whole body between the falling debris and Rose."What are you two doing here?" I frowned."Rose said she'd dropped her USB drive in here and needed to come find it," Wade said, coughing hard, one hand still shi

Chapter 5

Three days later, Nick pushed open the door to my hospital room. He set several documents down on the table. A unilateral divestment notice: the Rodney Group's withdrawal from the Cloud Project.I picked up a pen and signed my name on the last page. Every piece of land and equipment the Rodneys had put into the project would be reclaimed in full. Grant Group would be left to face the project's collapse and the massive penalty fees alone."Ms. Rodney, the representatives from Grant Group will be here this afternoon." Nick closed the folder. "Cyrus Statham's deal is settled. We're paying him exactly what the Barrymores owed him back then."I changed out of the hospital gown and walked toward the elevator, bag in hand.On the ground floor, Wade's car blocked the exit. He leaned against the car door, his gaze settling on me. Rose sat in the passenger seat, only half her face visible."Elisa." He straightened up, blocking the exit, his eyes flicking to the bandage wrapped around my wri

Chapter 6

Two in the afternoon, at the hotel ballroom, dozens of cameras were trained on the stage, and I sat right at the center of it."Ms. Rodney, there are rumors that the Rodney Group's withdrawal was because you deliberately leaked the Cloud Project's core data. Is that true?""Reports say the warehouse fire a few days ago was arson, hired by you to destroy evidence. How do you respond to that?"The questions came one after another, a barrage against a constant rattle of camera shutters. I pushed the microphone forward half an inch, my knuckles resting on the switch."Every question here will have an answer today."I switched on the projection screen behind me. The surveillance footage showed Rose, wearing a baseball cap, walking into the room that housed the core servers. Ten minutes later, she walked back out carrying a laptop."This is Grant Group' internal server room footage," I said into the microphone. "At the very same time, a set of core data was transferred to a server belo

Chapter 7

Three days after the press conference, Grant Group collapsed entirely. The media ran story after story on the scandal: Rose hiring someone to kidnap Wade's mother, and the data fraud behind the Cloud Project. Grant Group's stock hit the daily limit down, day after day, wiping out more than half its market value. The Barrymores went completely bankrupt, every asset seized for forced liquidation.Late that night, I sat in my study looking over the financial reports. Nick walked in and set down a stack of files."Ms. Rodney, Rose got into a car accident while trying to flee. She hit a truck."I turned a page in the report. "Where is she now?""She's lost both legs, ruptured her spleen. Still in the ICU. "Wade was in the car too."I looked up."He went after her. His right hand is shattered."Fate really was fair. In my last life, to get his revenge, he'd made sure I could never hold a paintbrush again. Now, his hand was ruined.When Grant's father, Levi, learned the truth, h

Chapter 8

Nick walked over and handed me a folder."Ms. Rodney, the company's focus is shifting to the European market. The chairman's already settled in over there.""Thank you for the hard work." I took the folder.There was half an hour left before boarding. I walked over to the floor-to-ceiling window and watched the planes taking off and landing on the runway outside. The sky was a deep blue, without a single cloud.In my last life, my hands had been covered in scars, and every single day had been a struggle against Wade's endless torment. Now, all ten of my fingers were whole, and my fortune was more than enough."Passengers traveling to Topheria, please gather your belongings and prepare for boarding."I turned and picked up my handbag. I passed through the security checkpoint, leaving everything behind me. Sunlight poured over me at the end of the corridor. I had finally, completely broken free of Wade."Ms. Rodney, welcome aboard. Your seat is 1A, first class." The flight attenda

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