\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 9 Mutual Assured Destruction\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 9 Mutual Assured Destruction\u00a0<\/p>\n
+35 Free Coins\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMs. Watson! Open your eyes and look at this man! He\u2019s a liar, a coward, and the most selfish bastard you\u2019ll ever meet! He came to me, understand? He asked me to play along, to fake a relationship so he could boost his stock numbers and attention! In exchange, he promised me every endorsement under the Stephenson Group, every resource they had-he swore he\u2019d make me a star! And he\u2019s the one who told me you-Jasmine-were useless to him. That besides your face, you brought nothing to his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That your family was small-time, no help to him at all. That he was sick of you long before this!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s not all!\u201d Teresa\u2019s eyes gleamed with vicious satisfaction as another memory surfaced. \u201cHe\u2019s not half as clean as he pretends to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To secure that land deal on the west side? He funneled a ridiculous amount of money to the official\u2019s brother-in-law-bribes so huge it made my head spin!\u00a0<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t dare use company accounts, so he routed it through an overseas card under his mother\u2019s name! And that shady \u2018consulting fee\u2019 the company paid last year? The one that made no sense?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSHUT UP!!!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Pure terror seized Kevin. His face went white, eyes bulging. He lunged at her like a wild animal, trying to physically silence the words that spelled his doom.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Teresa dodged with feral grace, continuing her tirade, her words.detonating with brutal precision.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat? Getting scared now? Weren\u2019t you the one who wanted me to take the fall for everything? Kevin Stephenson, let me spell it out for you-if I go down, we go down together. You want to toss me out as the scapegoat so you can crawl back to her? Not happening.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
She took a step closer, voice rising, sharp enough to cut glass. \u201cDo you want me to remind you? You\u2019re the one who kneeled in front of me-kneeled-telling me I was the one you really loved. Telling me that once you squeezed the last bit of value out of Jasmine, you\u2019d kick her out and marry me instead!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cENOUGH!\u201d Kevin\u2019s roar was purely desperat animal. His composure shattered. He collapsed to the floor, hands clamped over his head, body shaking violently.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
All of it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not only had he failed to salvage anything-Teresa had dragged him into an inescapable abyss.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She stood panting, vengeful satisfaction twisting her features as she looked from the broken man on the floor to me. Her eyes held terror, despair, and the reckless madness of having nothing left to lose.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The room held only Kevin\u2019s choked sobs and Teresa\u2019s ragged breathing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I had remained seated throughout, a still point in the storm, as if the entire grotesque spectacle were happening on a stage far removed from me.\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
}\u00a0<\/p>\n
09:48 Tue, Jan 20 G.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 9 Mutual Assured Destruction\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finally, I lifted my gaze, letting it coolly pass over both of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cFinished?\u201d My voice was perfectly flat.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They flinched.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I gave Charles a slight nod.\u00a0<\/p>\n
86\u00a0<\/p>\n
+35 Free Coins\u00a0<\/p>\n
He picked up the intercom. His tone was cool, professional. \u201cSecurity to my office. Also notify Legal and Risk Assessment-immediate presence required in the adjoining conference room.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Black-suited guards entered and efficiently escorted out a catatonic Kevin-too hollowed-out even to struggle-and Teresa, whose bravado had vanished, her eyes wide again with fresh, choking fear. The two of them were \u201cescorted\u201d out with a politeness that felt colder than force.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unremembered Beforefall by Mark Twain 9 \u00a0 Chapter 9 Mutual Assured Destruction\u00a0 Chapter 9 Mutual Assured Destruction\u00a0 +35 Free Coins\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-new-room"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20205\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}