Chapter 234
Chapter 234:
Cole’s chest heaved. He reached out a trembling hand and gripped the hem of Crawford’s coat like a desperate man grasping at a ledge.
“I didn’t know,” Cole sobbed, his face collapsing with agony. “I swear to God, Crawford, I didn’t know she was bleeding. I thought she was trying to ruin Alycia’s party. I’m a monster p>
Crawford pulled his leg back sharply, ripping his coat free from Cole’s grip.
“You are a monster,” Crawford agreed, his voice cold. “But you are also a blind, pathetic fool. You think her physical pain is the only thing you were too stupid to see p>
He reached into the inner pocket of his coat and withdrew a thick manila envelope sealed with red wax — the product of a twelve-hour assault by his personal cybersecurity team, who had torn through digital firewalls across three continents to assemble the dossier inside. He raised his arm and snapped it forward, whipping the envelope directly at Cole’s face.
The heavy paper struck his cheek. The wax seal shattered, and a dozen watermarked documents exploded from the envelope, scattering across the floor around Cole’s legs.
Cole blinked through his tears and looked down at the page resting on his thigh.
It was a certified financial statement from a Cayman Islands banking entity — the declaration of an offshore trust. The primary beneficiary and sole controller was listed as June Erickson. Below her name ran a column of passive income streams generated from fourteen global biomedical patent licenses. The quarterly dividend payout was listed at seven point five million dollars.
Cole’s breath caught. His mind struggled to process the figure.
He had been depositing five thousand dollars a month into her checking account for groceries. He had monitored her credit card usage. He had genuinely believed she was a desperate orphan who would starve on the streets of Manhattan without his generosity.
She had more liquid capital than half the board members of the Compton Group.
𝗕е p𝘢𝗋𝘵 𝗈𝖿 о𝘶r 𝗰omm𝘂𝗻𝗂𝗍y o𝗇
His trembling hands reached for the next document. It was a sealed academic transcript from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, detailing her admission at the age of fifteen. Attached was a letter of recommendation signed by Dr. Zhang, Nobel Laureate, describing June as “the single most brilliant biochemical mind of her generation p>
Cole seized the third page. It was an internal corporate structuring document for Apex Bio. June’s name was listed as Shadow Chief Scientist and majority equity holder.
“Do you honestly think I aligned my empire with hers without conducting absolute due diligence?” Crawford’s voice sliced through the silence, thick with lethal condescension. “I have known exactly who she is for months. I bypassed the Cayman firewalls and unsealed those Hopkins records because I recognize a genius when I see one. I was simply waiting for a blind, arrogant fool like you to finally understand what you were sleeping beside p>
The truth drove into Cole like a sledgehammer.