Chapter 6
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When the board learned what Mark had done to me, they immediately convened an emergency meeting.
Out of respect for Mark’s grandfather-a former Wall Street legend-they chose not to completely destroy him. Instead, they stripped Mark of his VP position at Goldman Sachs and issued a blacklist notice across the entire industry.
Overnight, the once untouchable Mark West, who had ridden my family’s connections to power and prestige, was utterly
finished.
On my birthday, Robert reserved a private room at a Michelin three-star restaurant.
As fate would have it, right outside the restaurant, I ran into Mark-now reduced to a street artist sketching portraits for spare
change.
Without his tailored suits, he looked no better than a homeless man.
And soon after, another familiar figure appeared. Sofia, her innocent facade long gone, clung to the arm of a bloated mafia boss, her face caked in heavy makeup.
Mark’s gaze locked onto her flat stomach, his eyes burning with fury as he lunged forward.
“Where’s the baby?! Where’s our baby?!” he roared.
In response, the mafia boss’s men dragged him aside and beat him mercilessly.
Sofia looked down at his pathetic state, covering her nose with a silk handkerchief as if he reeked.
“When you promised to marry me, I actually thought I’d found myself a meal ticket,” she sneered. “Turns out you were nothing but a worthless leech living off a woman. You couldn’t even keep me.”
She twirled her hair flirtatiously, leaning against the mafia boss.
“Did you really think you were still some Wall Street hotshot after Via dumped you? Look at you now-you’re nothing but a stray dog. You think I’d ever ruin my body having a child for someone like you?”.
With that, she burst into laughter, nuzzling against her new man without a trace of shame.
Expressionless, I walked past them, letting the restaurant manager lead me upstairs to the private suite.
But Mark came staggering after me.
“Via!” he shouted, desperate.
I didn’t even glance back. He dropped to his knees, clutching the heel of my stiletto like a beggar.
“Via… please… I know I was wrong. Forgive me. After everything that’s happened… I finally realized-you’re the one I truly love.
His pathetic confession made my stomach turn. With a sharp kick, I sent him sprawling.
“You don’t love me,” I spat. “You’re just a parasite who can’t survive without my protection. Now that you’ve lost it, you’re broke, cornered, and desperate.
“I’m the heir to the Anderson family. I made you, and I destroyed you. Don’t fool yourself into thinking this is about love. The only thing you ever cared about was the wealth and power I could give you.”
Mark scrambled to his knees, frantically shaking his head.
“No… no, that’s not true! I love you, Via! I really do!”
Ignoring the crowd, he lunged at me, trying to pull me into an embrace. But Robert arrived just in time and punched him,
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Chapter 6
+15 Bonus
sending him tumbling down the staircase.
Stunned, Mark clutched his swollen face, staring at Robert in disbelief.
“Y-You… You’re Robert Black?! But… you’re not disfigured! How-?!”
Robert didn’t even spare him a glance. He scooped me into his arms and strode into the private suite.
Settling me onto his lap, Robert buried his face in my neck and mumbled, “Honey… could you maybe be a little tougher from now on?”
I chuckled. “Define tougher.”
“Next time you see that scumbag, don’t waste time. Just have the bodyguards tase him and drag him away.’
“1
Laughing, I ran my fingers through his hair. “Alright, got it. Didn’t realize you were this jealous.”
Robert looked up at me, his eyes dark and intense, before crashing his lips onto mine. “I don’t care. You’re my wife now. No one’s taking you from me.”
From that day on, Mark clung to me like a leech. No matter where I went, he somehow managed to show up.
He would hold up his pathetic sketches like they were priceless treasures.
“Via… remember how you used to say you liked my drawings? From now on, I’ll only draw you… just you, okay?”
I stared at him coldly. Mark mistook my silence for hesitation-hope flickered in his eyes. “Via… as long as you forgive me, swear, I’ll start over. Every piece of art I make from now on will be for you!”
I
“Enough.” My voice snapped like ice. “Mark… how did I never realize before just how shameless and pathetic you truly are?”
Poetic justice. The very words he once used to humiliate me… were now being flung right back in his face.
“No…” Mark shook his head violently, his expression unraveling into madness. “It’s that b*tch, isn’t it? Sofia… It’s Sofia’s fault… If she were dead, you’d forgive me, right? Right?!”
Looking at the broken man in front of me-wild, hysterical, beyond reason-I realized…
Mark West was truly beyond saving.
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