I Married The Disabled Billionaire Then My Family Begged Me To Come Back Chapter 08
Begging in the Rain
The moment Adrian says those words, the whole game flips.
One second, the Hales and Silas are standing there like winners.
The next, they’re frozen in place, too scared to breathe right.
Adrian doesn’t give them another look.
He takes my hand and walks out with me, surrounded by Sterling bodyguards.
And that party?
That’s only the beginning of the Hale and Cole nightmare.
The first thing Adrian does after taking back Sterling Group is blacklist Hale Holdings and Cole Group completely.
Business wars are colder than knives.
And much crueler.
In just three days, Adrian uses every resource the Sterling family has.
He cuts off the Hales’ supply chain.
He pressures the banks to call in their loans overnight.
Hale Holdings’ stock crashes three days straight.
Billions vanish like smoke.
Cole Group is even worse.
To prove his loyalty to Julian, Silas dumped almost all of the company’s remaining cash into that fake overseas project.
Now Julian is in jail.
The shell fund has blown up.
And Cole Group is drowning in debt, heading straight for bankruptcy.
As for the fifteen percent of Hale Holdings I cashed out and donated?
It becomes the one asset untouched by the crash.
And the one thing the Hales can never get back.
On the fourth evening, a heavy storm hits Manhattan.
Rain beats against the windows like someone throwing rocks.
The butler walks into the living room and bows.
“Mrs. Sterling, Henry and Evelyn Hale are outside the estate gates with Stella.”
“They’ve been standing there for three hours.”
“The guards tried to make them leave, but they keep saying they won’t go until they see you.”
I’m sitting on the couch, reading Sterling Group’s financial reports.
I don’t even lift my eyes.
“Let them stand there.”
“When they’re close to passing out, let me know.”
Adrian walks over with a glass of warm water.
He sits beside me and puts it into my hand.
“If you don’t want to see them, don’t.”
His tone is lazy.
“I can have the guards throw them down the hill.”
“No.”
I take a sip of water and stand.
A cold smile touches my mouth.
“If they want to see me that badly…”
“I should go send them off properly.”
“Some debts need to be settled face to face.”
I take a black umbrella and walk to the tall iron gates with several bodyguards behind me.
The rain is brutal.
It hits the ground so hard it splashes up in white mist.
Henry, Evelyn, and Stella are standing in the mud.
They look nothing like the proud, polished people I used to know.
Their expensive clothes are soaked through.
Mud stains their suits and dresses.
Their hair is plastered to their faces.
The second Henry sees me, he lunges at the gate like I’m his last chance at breathing.
He grabs the iron bars with both hands.
“Claire! Claire, you finally came to see me!”
“Dad knows he was wrong!”
“Hale Holdings is about to go bankrupt.”
“The banks are coming after us every day.”
“Please, talk to Mr. Sterling for me.”
“Ask him to let us live.”
Evelyn rushes over too.
She cries like her heart is being ripped out.
Now she wants to play mother.
“Sweetheart, everything is our fault.”
“But we are still your parents.”
“Blood matters.”
“Are you really going to watch us die?”
“You can’t be this cold.”
“You can’t just stand there and do nothing.”
I take a folder from one of the bodyguards.
Then I throw it through the gate, hard.
The papers slap across their faces and scatter into the rain.
The ink smears, but the words are still clear.
A copy of the severance agreement they forced me to sign at the party.
I look at them and laugh.
“Blood matters?”
My voice cuts through the rain.
“Where was all that blood talk when you made me sign this?”
“When you cut me off in front of everyone?”
“Now you’re bankrupt and out of options…”
“And suddenly I’m your daughter again?”
“Too late.”
Henry stares at the wet papers on the ground.
His face goes gray.
His lips shake, but no words come out.
I look at Evelyn.
She’s still trying to cry her way out of this.
My eyes go completely cold.
“Since you want to talk about family so badly…”
“Let me help you understand something.”
I lean forward slightly and look straight into her eyes.
“Do you really think I don’t know the truth about that so-called hospital mix-up?”