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"Let me explain."
Sophia stepped forward, her face flushed with humiliation.
Smack!
Robert slapped her, drawing blood from her lip, then grabbed a chair and hurled it at Jacob.
"You little bastard!"
"How dare you sleep with my daughter? You've ruined everything for our family! I'll kill you!"
He looked ready to devour Jacob alive.
Jacob didn't dodge, taking the hit squarely. He then scrambled naked from the bed and said to Robert,
"Mr. Greene."
"I truly love Sophia, and what's done is done."
"We've lost business here, but we're thriving overseas. With a bit more time, we could come back and even take down the Murphys."
"I'm capable—I helped secure major deals for Sophia. I won't be a burden."
Word by word, he struck a chord with Robert.
Even angry Sophia calmed down. "Dad."
"Jacob's right about one thing: the Murphys are powerful, but their reach doesn't extend abroad. We don't need to fear them that much."
Robert's frown eased slightly.
Bzzz!
Just then, phone rings and vibrations erupted like a death knell.
Sophia saw the caller ID and answered immediately.
It's her overseas assistant.
"What?..."
"All of them?...
"Are you sure?"
She listened, her hand beginning to tremble. "The suppliers terminated? And the security firms... their entire staff defected?..." Her voice was a shaky whisper.
"Who... who is behind this?"
Losing funding, suppliers, and security meant three pillars of her overseas operations collapsing.
No ordinary person could manage that.
"The Manhattan Murphys."
The assistant continued, "A senior exec confided that our previous success was all because the Murphys paved the way and offered them incentives."
"Otherwise, they wouldn't have given us the time of day."
Hearing this.
Sophia's mind went blank. She staggered back, collapsing to the floor.
No wonder the Greene family had climbed so high in just three years—a journey that should've taken decades.
She thought it was her own brilliance.
Turns out, Liam had been clearing the path all along.
Robert slapped his thigh in despair. "We're finished! Completely finished!"
"Our family was set to soar, and you two destroyed all!"
"A disgraceful daughter and a beast!"
"You both deserve to die!"
He wailed, pounding his chest, then grabbed the chair and smashed it into Jacob again.
This time, Jacob stayed silent.
All his confidence was gone.
"No!"
"I need to find Liam. I have to win him back!"
Sophia trembled as she stood, muttering to herself, unable to accept this crushing defeat.
Two days later.
I was at a café waiting for the assistant my father sent when I spotted Sophia.
She was wandering outside. Seeing me, her face lit up, and she rushed into the café.
"Liam!"
"Thank goodness! I knew you were still in town. You couldn't leave me behind."
