Chapter 10
Alaric froze. So Isolde’s money really was her own?
Even through his searing pain, he just stared at me in complete shock.
I cradled my broken arm and walked stepped right up to him:
“I never touched a penny of your money–not once in all these years. Hell, every time your company was going under, I was the one secretly keeping it afloat”
“Want to know why your accounts were bleeding money? rd suggest taking a real hard look at your precious Aurora]
I turned to leave, but Alaric’s voice cracked behind me: “No, don’t leave me! Please!”
1 stopped and looked back.]
Sering me pause, Alaric’s face lit up with desperate hope:[]
“Don’t leave me! I know I fucked up, but you still love me, right? You have to!”
I shook my head and pointed at the dog cage
“Oh, I almost forgot something. Throw his ass in there.“|||
Alaric had never been humiliated like this in his entire privileged life.|
He fought and struggled, but fuck him–he was getting exactly what he’d tried to do to me
My guys worked together to force him into that cage, just like his goons had tried to do to me
After they locked it up, I threw the key over the mansion wall into the garden
I smirked at Aurora: “Better start digging, sweetheart! Find that key and maybe you’ll finally be Mrs. Marchand!”
Aurora immediately bolted into the house, frantically searching everywhere
I climbed into Rowan’s Phantom and we peeled out in formation
Alaric could only watch helplessly as our convoy disappeared into the distance
A few days later, Viviana texted me an update.
“Aurora got fired.“||
“Alaric found out she’d been sleeping with the CFO and embezzling company funds together.”
“He’s pressing charges. Aurora’s looking at ten years minimum
Honestly? I couldn’t give less of a shit. I was laser–focused on taking AskiQ global]
But I didn’t expect Alaric to track me down in San Francisco.
I was leaving the office when someone tackled me from behind, wrapping me in a death grip
That familiar cologne filled my senses, along with Alaric’s broken sobbing
“I’m so sorry, Izzy. Please forgive me?”
“I just lost my way for a minute. I can fix this, I swear! You know how much I love you!“]
I shoved him off without mercy: “Sorry, but I don’t forgive you.”
“I know what your love looks like because you used to love me that way
“And I know exactly what it looks like when you don’t–because that’s how you treated me.
1-
“I can’t lie to myself anymore. So stay the hell away from me, or I might actually kill you next time.”
I signaled my security to drag him away.
Alaric watched my car pull away, his voice full of despair.
1
“Isolde! Everyone makes mistakes? Does one fuck–up mean I deserve lose everything? Why won’t you give me another chance?”
trolled down the rear window and called hack []
“Because I don’t love you anymore!
That’s the truth–when the love dios, so do the second chances.
Anyone who gets a second shot still has some love left to work with.
Alaric completely broke down, tears streaming down his face.
After he crawling back to New York, Aurora tracked him down.
She begged him to drop the charges, even stripped naked and threw herself at him.
But staring at her young, perfect body, Alaric felt absolutely nothing[]
He slapped her hard, then started slapping himself over and over.
What a fucking idiot.
1e’d thrown away his treasure for some gold digging whore
Aurora finally got sentenced and sent to prison []
Alaric scrambled to save Marchand Industries, begging for investors everywhere
While he was running around desperately trying to save his sinking company, my team’s new Af robotics line won the National Technology Innovation Award
The same day our subsidiary went public on NASDAQ, Marchand Industries filed for bankruptcy.
Alaric went from golden boy to rock bottom overnight
I heard that after failing to find corporate work, he swallowed his pride and started delivering for DoorDash
But his debt was crushing him. Six months later, the stress gave him stomach cancer.
he died, he wanted to see me one last time]
Before he
Thinking about our history, I decided to go.
He was barely breathing in that hospital bed:
“Isolde.. if I could go back and do it all over again, I’d never let you walk away.”
I wiped away the single tear on my cheek and told him firmly
“If I could go back, I’d choose never to meet you at all.”
Alaric’s eyes went blank before he closed them forever.
From high school sweethearts to bitter enemies.
All debts settled, all love destroyed. In the next life, may we never cross paths again
