\u201cI already told you,\u201d Larissa cut him off. \u201cYou had your chance to leave without penalty, and you refused. Now you want to break the contract? You\u2019ll have to wait until it expires.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Trusting his family\u2019s company, Leopold had signed a ten\u2013year deal. Only two years had passed. He still had eight to go. By then, his career would be over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLarissa, if you let me go, I promise I\u2019ll never bother you about forgiveness again,\u201d he pleaded.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLeopold,\u201d she said, her voice dripping with scorn, \u201cthe only reason I offered to release you from your contract for free was because I wanted nothing more to do with you. But you refused. You were probably high on some self\u2013serving guilt after discovering Honora\u2019s lies and thought you could make it all better with some grand gesture. Now you regret it? Too late.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, if you insist on breaking the contract now, you\u2019re welcome to,\u201d she continued, a cruel glint in her eye. \u201cYou just have to pay the buyout fee. It\u2019s not much. Only ten million. But given your current situation, can you really afford that?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He couldn\u2019t. After two years, he only had about three million in savings. The rest he had squandered, mostly on gifts for Honora. A single handbag or piece of jewelry had often cost him hundreds of thousands. Looking back, he realized he\u2019d spent nearly ten million on her alone. And all the while, she had been secretly sending two hundred thousand a month to her biological father. They had been played for absolute fools.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t worry,\u201d Larissa added, her tone mockingly helpful. \u201cSince Gale Entertainment is so eager to poach you, I\u2019m sure they\u2019d be willing to cover a measly ten million, wouldn\u2019t they?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, she already knew. She knew he was planning to sign with them.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leopold froze, the words of denial catching in his throat. It was the truth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seeing his stunned silence, Larissa\u2019s eyes filled with contempt. \u201cWhat, did you think I wouldn\u2019t find out why you suddenly had a change of heart?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He looked down, ashamed.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMagnus, Starlight\u2019s former head of the acquisition department, has been in touch, hasn\u2019t he?\u201d she pressed on. \u201cI don\u2019t know what he promised you to make you jump ship to Gale Entertainment, but this just proves you\u2019re exactly like your brother Finley. Both of you talk a big game about making amends, then turn around and stab me in the back.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, that\u2019s not it!\u201d he protested desperately. \u201cI never wanted to betray you! You just didn\u2019t give me a chance! I had no other choice-\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not that I didn\u2019t give you a chance,\u201d Larissa cut in, her words like ice. \u201cIt\u2019s that you\u00a0<\/p>\n
1\/2\u00a0<\/p>\n
10:26\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chapter 525\u00a0<\/p>\n
don\u2019t deserve one.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Leopold knew it was hopeless. At that moment, he was more convinced than ever: only by becoming powerful and successful would he ever earn the right to his sister\u2019s\u00a0<\/p>\n
forgiveness.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He stood up. \u201cI\u2019ll find a way to get the ten million.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After he left, Larissa let out a derisive snort. In the end, not a single one of her so\u2013called blood relatives had proven to be genuine. She rose from the sofa and returned to her office. Opening Twitter, she posted a new update.\u00a0<\/p>\n
[New tracks are recorded. Get ready~]\u00a0<\/p>\n
She added a peace\u2013sign emoji.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Almost instantly, fans who had recently discovered she was the author \u201cField of Lari\u201d flooded the <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Wings of Broken Time by Alina Das 525 \u201cI already told you,\u201d Larissa cut him off. \u201cYou had your chance […]<\/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":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-throne-of-thorns-novel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31050","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=31050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kezpres.xyz\/novelreading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}