THE BILLIONAIRE STILL WANTS HER!
Chapter 172: Hold the woman...

Chapter 172: Hold the woman...

"And yet, at the end of it all, you go and hold the woman I told you to get rid of— and make sure you abort that child she has. You’ve ruined everything, Arthur. The very woman you could’ve had in your life, the one you could’ve built a future with, you drove her away. And now, you’re behaving like some foolish man, lost in his own regret, simply because you heard she’s gone."

Alex stared into Arthur’s eyes, his expression unreadable, but the fire behind his gaze was undeniable.

There was a moment—just a flicker—where he almost felt the urge to drop his hardened demeanor, to strip away the rage and speak to Arthur.

But that moment passed as quickly as it came.

Right now, emotions had to wait. What mattered most was knowing Arthur’s next move, and Alex wasn’t going to leave without answers.

At the same time, Alex—still reeling from what he’d learned, still haunted by the recklessness he had shown back at the office—felt a fear creep into him that he hadn’t known before.

A deep, bone-chilling fear that his son, his pride, his only true legacy, might one day walk away from him completely.

The thought of that loneliness, of that abandonment, was unbearable.

Alex had worked tirelessly to shape a path for his son—a future carved with ambition, power, and security.

Every deal, every sleepless night, every ruthless decision had been for one purpose: to ensure his son would never have to claw his way up from the dirt the way he had.

That empire—it was his life’s work, a kingdom built from blood, sacrifice, and relentless vision.

To lose that, to watch it crumble because of one wrong move? It was unthinkable.

He had come from nothing.

A childhood stitched together with hardship and sorrow, a past littered with the ghosts of pain and hunger.

And now, standing atop the empire he had built with his bare hands, there was a quiet pride that lived inside him.

The world saw a man of power, of wealth and wisdom.

But what Alex saw in the mirror was someone who had survived the unimaginable—and turned it into something extraordinary. He wasn’t just going to let it slip away.

"Look at yourself, Arthur. Try to make sense of this," Alex said, his tone now laced with quiet fury. "Why would Sophia vanish without a trace? Doesn’t that tell you everything you need to know?"

But Arthur, still catching his breath from the verbal onslaught and the chaos burning inside him, could only return the stare.

His voice, when it came, was scornful and low. "Is there even a point in answering you? Would it matter?"

To his surprise, Alex laughed.

Not the kind of laugh that showed amusement—but one that echoed with bitterness, the sound of a man who had stopped expecting anything but disappointment.

He was utterly taken aback—stunned, even—by his own reaction.

It wasn’t often that something caught him off guard, but this... this was different.

He wasn’t just surprised; he was amused, genuinely entertained in that cynical, quietly mocking way that was so typical of a man like him.

The kind of man who found irony in everything, especially when it involved others’ discomfort.

Alex offered nothing more than a subtle, almost imperceptible nod at that moment, a simple motion that carried the weight of unspoken thoughts.

Then, without a word, he let the cane slip from his grasp.

It clattered against the floor, echoing faintly in the tense silence, as his sharp gaze locked onto Arthur’s.

There was something fiery behind Alex’s eyes—an intensity that didn’t need words to convey its message.

The burn in his stare was fierce, almost scalding, as though daring Arthur to speak first.

"You know," Alex began slowly, his voice low and deliberate, "there are countless things I could have expected from you—arrogance, maybe. A bit of pride. But laziness? That, I have to admit, fits you better than I thought." His words were coated in disdain, each syllable punctuated with just enough venom to sting.

His eyes didn’t waver, brimming with contempt and a smug sort of confidence.

Arthur bristled under the weight of that gaze, but Alex wasn’t done. He took a slow step forward, the corners of his mouth curled into a smirk. "Still, I didn’t come here just to throw insults. I came because—well, because someone asked me to."

He paused, letting the suspense simmer before dropping the truth with brutal simplicity.

"So if you must know," he said, almost offhandedly, "your darling brother Tryson was the one who helped you out of this little situation."

Arthur blinked, the words hitting him like cold water. A scoff was already forming in his throat, the reflexive disbelief ready to spill out.

"How could you—" he began, but the rest of the sentence withered away on his tongue.

He stopped, his brows furrowing, the implications settling in.

"Wait," Arthur said slowly, the disbelief in his voice now tainted with confusion. "Tryson was the one responsible for that?"

Alex didn’t answer right away.

Instead, he chuckled—low and amused, a sound full of derision. It wasn’t laughter born of joy, but one soaked in irony and dominance.

"What else?" Alex replied, shrugging lazily. Then he tilted his head, his lips parting in a smile that was all sharp edges and cold satisfaction.

The kind of smile meant to unsettle. He let the silence stretch for a heartbeat more before exhaling lightly, as if releasing some last bit of tension.

"Tryson asked me to tell you himself. He figured you deserved to know, even if you wouldn’t believe it," Alex added, his voice dripping with mock sweetness as he delivered the final blow. "So yes, Arthur. That’s the truth. In case you were wondering."

Arthur stared, and in the stillness that followed, the floor seemed to tilt just slightly under the weight of the revelation.

At the very least, a smile—just a hint of one—would’ve sufficed to show Arthur how deeply foolish he had been all along. But there was none. Just silence and that unbearable look in Alex’s eyes.

"What? What’s his concern?" Arthur asked, his voice laced with disbelief, as if he couldn’t fathom how the tables had turned.

And then, for just a fleeting moment, the truth began to crystallize in his mind—like fog lifting to reveal a painfully clear landscape.

"I wouldn’t know," Alex said, his voice carrying the same disdain Arthur had once thrown his way.

But then, something shifted—he smiled. Not out of amusement, but with a bitterness that twisted the gesture into something far more cutting.

"But you know," Alex continued, his tone quieter now but sharper than ever, "when I really think about it... you went ahead and did the one thing I explicitly told you not to do, didn’t you, Arthur?"

His eyes locked with Arthur’s, unflinching. In that moment, Arthur felt stripped bare under Alex’s gaze—exposed, cornered. He opened his mouth to speak, but no words came.

He wanted to argue, to defend himself, but the truth of what Alex had done—something so close to betrayal, yet rooted in justice—boiled inside him like a rising tide of fury.

"What do you mean?" Arthur asked, his voice cracking as he attempted to steer the conversation elsewhere, anywhere but here.

Alex scoffed, not bothering to hide his contempt. "It’s like you’ve aged overnight... lost your grip on everything, including common sense."

Those words, flung so carelessly, hit harder than any blow.

The tension in the room thickened.

Then, slowly, deliberately, Alex reached down and lifted the old cane—the one he hadn’t touched.

"We’re doing it this way now," Alex declared, his voice low but resolute.

Arthur’s eyes followed the motion, and the moment he recognized what Alex was holding, a flicker of panic danced across his face.

He stretched out his hand instinctively, his voice breaking into a stutter.

"Wait—what are you doing? What... what do you mean by that?"

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