All Chapters of What Daddy Left Behind: Chapter 71 - Chapter 80

~ Stellan's POVThe hallway leading to the penthouse was silent, I adjusted my cuffs, spent the last six hours in a war room, dismantling a PR. The statement I had authorized was perfect. It was cold, legal, and absolute. It had severed the "engagement" narrative at the neck, recasting Thea from a scandalous fiancée into a protected ward.I had saved her reputation. I had saved the company’s stock value. I had restored order. I reached for the keypad next to the penthouse door. I knew the code, I had programmed it myself.Access Denied.I stared at the small red light blinking on the panel. I punched the code in again. 1-0-1-9. The date Richard died. The date I took over.Access Denied.My jaw tightened. She had changed it.I didn't knock. I simply pressed the intercom button, holding it down with a thumb that wanted to crush the plastic."Thea," I said. My voice was calm, low, and expecting immediate compliance. "Open the door."There was a long pause. The static of the speaker hisse

~ Thea's POVI looked at my best friend—the girl who had held my hair back when I puked after freshness week, the girl who had helped me pick out my father’s funeral dress—and I felt a crack form in my chest."Because it’s sick, Maya," I whispered, my voice trembling. "Because it’s wrong.""Wrong?" Maya stepped closer, her brow furrowed. "Thea, you’re consenting adults. He’s... intense, sure, and rich enough to buy a small country, but—""He was my father's best friend!" I shouted, the words tearing out of my throat like jagged glass.I paced away from her, running my hands through my hair, finally voicing the shame that had been eating me alive for months."He stood by my father's grave," I said, my voice rising hysterically. "He held my hand while they lowered the casket. He is the executor of the estate. He is the man my dad trusted to keep me safe from the world, and instead..."I spun around to face her, tears streaming down my face."Instead, he’s fucking me on the furniture!"M

~ Thea’s POVI was back in school like nothing happened. Like I wasn’t going through a difficult phase.I sat in the third row, my pen hovering over my notebook, staring at the professor’s laser pointer dancing across a graph of inflation rates. The air conditioning was humming a low, monotonous drone that usually lulled me into a focused trance.Today, however, it just felt cold. Maybe because of the way I acted towards Stellan. Was this me trying to draw a thick line between us?I focused on the graph. Supply shock. Demand-pull. Cost-push.I forced my hand to move, scratching notes onto the paper.Focus, I commanded myself. You are a student. You are Thea Mercer. You are not just the girl Stellan Vaughn visits in the middle of the night.It was harder than it should have been. Every time my phone buzzed in my bag, my heart jumped. Was it him? Was it an apology? Was it a command to come to the Tower?I checked it once during a break.Three missed calls from Stellan.One text: We nee

~ Stellan’s POVThe digital clock on the mahogany wall of the boardroom read 1:47 AM.Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, New York was a sprawling grid of electric veins, pulsing with a life that never slept. Inside, the air was stale, recycled, and thick with the scent of lukewarm coffee and fear."The merger with Kinsley Tech is... it's delicate, sir," the VP of Acquisitions stammered, shuffling a stack of papers that I had already memorized three hours ago. "If we push for the hostile takeover now, the market volatility—""The market is volatile because people are indecisive," I cut him off. My voice was low, devoid of the anger I usually wielded like a weapon. Tonight, I didn't have the energy for rage. I only had a cold, hollow exhaustion. "Execute the buy order at opening bell. If Kinsley resists, liquidate their subsidiary holdings in Singapore. Are we done?"The executives around the table exchanged nervous glances. They were used to the Dragon breathing fire. They weren't u

~ Thea’s POVI hit send, my thumb slipping on the glass screen.The message swooshed away, I didn't wait for a reply. I shoved the phone back into my clutch and gripped it hard as if it was the only thing holding me in place.The footsteps behind me were no longer trying to match my pace. They were heavy. Deliberate. Closing the distance.I was twenty feet from the glass awning of the Millennium Tower. I could see the golden glow of the lobby lights, a beacon of safety that felt a thousand miles away. The doorman wasn't outside; he was likely behind the desk, warm and oblivious, while I was freezing on the sidewalk with a predator breathing down my neck.I didn't run. My legs felt like they were moving through molasses, the terror turning my muscles to water. I walked fast, my heels clicking a frantic rhythm on the concrete.The presence behind me grew larger. I could feel it, a displacement of air, a cold shadow stretching out to engulf my own.Fucking hell, it felt like all those