I slid into the backseat. "Go. Take me to the Manor."
I leaned back against the cool leather, closing my eyes. "I've been away too long. It's time I paid the old man a visit."
…
The next morning, I woke up to a phone screen cluttered with notifications.
**[Shocking! Wealthy Heiress's Live-in Husband Absconds with Fortune!]**
**[Kept Man Turns Thief: The Betrayal of the Century!]**
I tapped on a video trending across every platform. Elisa filled the screen, weeping.
"I really didn't expect this," she sobbed, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. "I supported him for three years. Treated him with all my heart." Her voice cracked beautifully. "In the end, he not only betrayed me but stole my mother's jade pendant and embezzled $500,000 from the company. He even stole our core business secrets..."
Flawless. Voice choking at just the right moments. Tears flowing on command.
"Adam Mason, I'm not asking you to return the money." She looked directly into the camera lens, mascara smudged just so. "But those materials represent the hard work of over a hundred employees. How can you be so ruthless? And that pendant... it was the only thing my late mother left me..."
The camera panned.
Kevin Gilbert's face appeared in the frame, his arm draped protectively around Elisa's shoulders, his expression dripping with righteous indignation.
"Everyone, judge for yourselves. Are men who live off women nothing but trash? Usually, he can't even mop the floor properly, and now he dares to commit crimes!" His lip curled. "People like this belong in prison!"
The comments section was a war zone.
*"Damn, that's disgusting. Living off a woman and stealing her money?"*
*"Cut that scumbag into a thousand pieces! I feel so bad for Miss Fox!"*
*"Dox him! Don't let him escape!"*
*"I know this guy! He used to be the Fox family's dog. Never expected him to be such an ungrateful leech!"*
Vicious curses piled up by the second.
*Stole $500,000 and ran?*
A cold smirk tugged at the corner of my mouth.
Elisa seemed to have forgotten that the registered capital for her company came from my pocket. Although she was the legal representative, the actual control agreement had been notarized by my lawyers three years ago.
As for the "business secrets"? Nothing more than a few discarded proposals I had plucked from the Mason Group's trash bin to give her shell company a facade of value.