Five days after his clash with Lee Hua, Leo’s world began to collapse. His father Richard tried to guide him with patience and experience, but Leo, arrogant and convinced of his own superiority, refused to listen, dismissing his father’s advice as ignorant rambling.
Each attempt Leo made to reassert his power only worsened the situation. He alienated allies, destroyed the few relationships he had left.
Richard, who had built everything with his own hands, could only watch in frustration as his son spiraled.
The breaking point ca in a late-night argunt, when Richard finally declared that Leo was nothing but a spoiled child and decided to leave control of everything to Vanessa.
"Fuck..." Leo murmured, seeing his father walk away.
He thought it was just bravado but soon he realized no one in the company would answer his calls anymore.
And that was just the beginning, as things would get considerably worse.
Leo’s descent was not a slow one, it was a plunge.
At first, he convinced himself it was temporary. "They’ll co back," he muttered, pacing through his office like a caged animal. "They just need ti to realize I’m the only one who can lead the company."
But the silence was deafening. Phones that once rang endlessly with opportunities and flattery now remained cold and still. His ssages went unanswered.
The sycophants who were always around him disappeared and he felt completely abandoned and alone.
By the third day, his arrogance had turned into paranoia. He tried to shout, he raged, and threatened lawsuits to his father and employees, but it was utterly useless.
His days on the cruise were miserable. He drowned himself in the free alcohol, trying to blur the sharp edges of his collapsing world.
Out in the open, he forced a mask of calm, pretending to be just another passenger, mingling with strangers who didn’t know his na, who didn’t know what he had lost.
But when night ca, there was no escape. The mont he was alone in his cabin, reality crashed down on him with suffocating weight. Frustration gnawed at him, the taste of weakness bitter on his tongue. He had never felt so powerless, so desperately cornered.
He drifted through the cramped room in a haze, too restless to sleep, too hollow to think. The walls seed to inch closer with every passing hour, pressing against his chest until he could barely breathe.
Empty bottles littered the floor, their glassy reflections catching his face, distorted, hollow-eyed, and darker each ti he looked.
Then, on a night when sleep refused to co, Leo drifted out onto the cruise’s deck. The corridors were deserted, silent except for the low hum of the engines.
Almost everyone had retreated to their rooms, or down to the bar on the second floor where a small party still throbbed with loud music.
Out here, under the indifferent glow of the moon, Leo felt the weight of everything pressing down on him. His thoughts spiraled darker with every step. What’s the point? he wondered bitterly. Everything’s gone. My father, the company, my so-called allies... what’s left for ?
The ocean stretched endlessly around him, black and infinite. For the first ti, the idea of letting go, of ending it all, seed almost... peaceful.
He gripped the railing, staring down into the abyss below, and felt the temptation pulling at him.
But then he froze, hearing the strong steps that beca very familiar in his nightmares.
She was there.
Lee Hua was walking in the empty night, her eyes focused on sothing. She didn’t even notice Leo’s presence at first.
Truth to be said, she had completely forgotten about him at that point, He was not important enough. And her mind was only focused on cooling off, she needed to let all that desire go.
On the other hand, Leo was feeling his mind break, his pride, arrogance, anger, everything broke at once. He staggered toward her, desperation raw in his voice.
"Please..." His words ca out ragged, almost a sob. "Make it stop. All of it. I’ll do anything, just make this nightmare end."
At first, Lee Hua blinked, her gaze sharpening as she tried to rember who was the trembling man in front of her. Then recognition flickered, it was Liam’s enemy. Her lips curved into the faintest trace of disdain.
"What are you even talking about?" she asked flatly, her voice as cold as the sea breeze.
"Please, forgive ! I can’t take it anymore!" Leo’s words tumbled out in broken gasps. "Why does everything keep falling apart? Why do you want to torture so much?"
In his paranoia, Leo was convinced that she was behind it all, that Lee Hua was still ddling in his life, orchestrating his downfall piece by piece, savoring his collapse.
It was natural for him to think that way. After all, that was exactly how he used to operate: sadistic, ticulous, breaking his enemies slowly until they were crawling, begging, before he finally ended them.
But Lee Hua was nothing like him. She had no interest in tornting him beyond what was necessary. She had only wanted to hold him to his bet. And after Richard stripped him of his inheritance and handed everything to Vanessa, her point had already been made.
The rest? The loneliness, the ruined bonds, the humiliation? That was Leo’s own doing.
Lee Hua tilted her head slightly, a sharp, amused glint in her eyes. "You think I’m wasting my ti on you? Don’t flatter yourself. If everything is falling apart it’s your own fault."
Her laugh was soft, but it cut like a blade. "You destroyed yourself, Leo. I didn’t have to lift a finger."
The words struck him harder than any blow. He shook his head violently, his face twisting in disbelief. "No... no, you’re lying! You did this, you planned all of this!"
Lee Hua only smirked, the dismissal in her expression absolute.
That was the final spark.
Sothing inside Leo snapped. His despair twisted into rage, his body trembling as he lunged at her, teeth clenched, eyes bloodshot.
Lee Hua was alone, and acting all arrogant as she was invulnerable. He could not tolerate that, his body burned with rage.
"I’ll kill you!" he scread, charging recklessly toward the woman.
Leo hurled himself forward, a broken beast lashing out in desperation. But before he could even touch her, a shadow moved.
Lee Hua’s bodyguard appeared as if from nowhere. He was naturally always close to the woman protecting her.
In one fluid motion, he intercepted Leo, a single strike sending him crashing to the deck with a sickening thud.
Lee Hua spared the fallen man only a brief, disinterested glance before turning away. For her, the matter was already forgotten.
And Leo would never be seen again.
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