CHAPTER 2 THE WOMAN THEY THOUGHT THEY OWNED
By 6:00 a.m., Damian Cross was no longer laughing.
His entire world had stopped.
The company servers were locked.
Bank transfers were frozen.
Investors were demanding answers.
And nobody would tell him why.
Because nobody wanted to be the first person to say the truth.
"Find her."
Damian slammed his hand onto the desk.
His assistant looked nervous.
"Mr. Cross..."
"What?"
"We already tried."
"And?"
The assistant swallowed.
"Every legal department we contacted refused to speak."
Damian frowned.
"Why?"
The assistant looked down.
"Because the orders came from Montrose Global."
Silence.
Damian slowly stood.
"Montrose?"
Across the city...
I sat inside the highest floor of Montrose Tower.
The office that carried my family's name.
The office where decisions worth billions were made.
My father, Richard Montrose, stood beside the window.
"You finally came home."
I smiled sadly.
"I never really left."
He looked at my bruised cheek.
His expression darkened.
"He did that?"
I nodded.
My father closed his eyes.
For years, he warned me.
"People who don't respect your kindness will eventually mistake it for weakness."
I didn't listen.
Until now.
"Do you want me to destroy them?"
I looked at the city below.
"No."
My father looked surprised.
"No?"
I shook my head.
"I want them to see the truth."
"Slowly."
"Publicly."
"Completely."
Meanwhile...
Damian discovered something even worse.
The Cross empire wasn't owned by the Cross family.
Not completely.
The holding company behind their biggest investments...
Was Montrose Global.
My company.
My family's company.
The empire they bragged about.
The mansion.
The cars.
The lifestyle.
Everything.
Was built on contracts signed with my family's money.
Damian stared at the documents.
"No..."
His mother Evelyn entered.
"What happened?"
He looked at her.
For the first time...
She saw fear in his eyes.
"Who is Isabella Montrose?"
Evelyn froze.
Only for a second.
But enough.
Damian noticed.
"You knew?"
She said nothing.
"You knew who she was?"
That night...
Damian received an email.
Only one sentence.
From me.
"You wanted me to leave your house. Consider it done."
Attached was a photo.
The ownership documents of the Cross mansion.
His mansion.
Signed.
By me.
Damian stared at the screen.
Because he finally understood.
The woman he slapped.
The woman he humiliated.
The woman he ordered to kneel...
Was the woman who could take everything away.
Then another message appeared.
"Tomorrow, the world will learn what kind of man Damian Cross really is."
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And for the first time in his life...
Damian Cross was afraid.
