Chapter 312
Chapter 312:
He was treating her like a pest, like a mosquito buzzing around his ear while he tried to put out a forest fire with a water pistol. The dismissal was a reflex—a muscle memory from a marriage that no longer existed.
Rage, cold and precise, flooded Skye’s chest. She didn’t shove the folder this time. She reached out and placed her hand over his, stopping the pen mid-stroke. Her skin was ice cold.
“There is no board meeting, Liam,” she said softly. “Half the board resigned this morning. The other half is on a conference call with me p>
Liam’s hand froze. The pen hovered over the paper.
Slowly—agonizingly slowly—he lifted his head.
His eyes were bloodshot. Not with the fiery anger she had expected, but with hollow, haunted exhaustion. He looked at her hand on his, then at the folder, and finally at her face.
“What did you do?” he whispered.
“I didn’t do anything,” Skye replied, removing her hand and taking a step back, as if touching him had dirtied her. “You did this. You and Seraphina. I’m just here to collect the debris p>
“Read the folder,” she commanded again.
He held her gaze for another second—a silent battle of wills he had already lost—before he finally dropped his pen. He reached for the folder with an air of exaggerated patience, flipped it open, and read the title page.
Notice of Asset Freeze and Petition for Emergency Management. Plaintiff: Oracle Holdings.
Defendant: Kensington Global.
A sneer curled his lip, but it wavered at the edges.
“Asset freeze,” he read aloud, the words tasting like ash. “Is that what we’re doing now? You think because you exposed Seraphina, you can take my company p>
“I own your debt, Liam,” Skye replied, her voice ice. “Oracle Holdings bought the senior notes on the shipyard project three days ago. With the stock crash caused by your… public embarrassment last night, you are in default. I’m not taking your company. I’m foreclosing on it p>
Liam laughed. It was a short, sharp bark of disbelief. “You’re bluffing. You don’t have the capital p>
𝗡𝘰 𝗺i𝘴𝘀і𝘯𝗀 c𝗁𝗮pte𝘳𝗌 о𝗻 𝘣𝖾.𝗰o𝘮
“I have Alistair Thorne,” she countered. “And unlike you, he doesn’t bet on horses that don’t run p>
Liam grabbed the cover page of the document. With a deliberate, violent motion, he ripped it in half.
Riiiiiip.
The sound was deafening in the quiet office. He didn’t stop there. He stacked the halves and ripped them again. Then he dropped the confetti into the metal trash can beside his desk.
“There,” he said, leaning back in his chair, lacing his fingers behind his head in a desperate pantomime of control. “Foreclosure denied p>
Skye stared at the trash can. She didn’t flinch. She didn’t cry. She felt a profound pity for the man who thought paper shredding could stop a legal avalanche.
“You can’t tear it up,” she whispered, the tremor in her voice not from fear but from the sheer intensity of her loathing. “The court order was filed electronically an hour ago. Security is already in the lobby, Liam. They’re coming to escort you out of the building p>
“I bought The Daily Chronicle this morning,” he blurted, a non sequitur born of panic.
Skye tilted her head. “What p>