Chapter 128: The Real Truth

Looking down at her smiling face from two feet away, Jude paused, then lowered his voice away from the mic.

"Drop the act, Chelsea. What do you actually want from me?"

"I don’t want anything," Chelsea whispered back, keeping her bright smile locked on. "You won fair and square. The Heavens Club is already yours."

"Keep your club," Jude said, shaking his head without blinking. "I don’t want it."

Because he didn’t bother whispering, the mic picked up his words and blasted them across the silent ballroom.

For three seconds, three hundred billionaires stared at the stage, their brains frying.

"Wait... is this guy actually turning it down, or is he just flexing to mock the rest of us?!"

"He gets a three-billion-dollar club and a billion in cash for pocket change, and tells her to keep it?! Who the hell does that?!"

"What kind of mind game is this?!"

Jude wasn’t flexing for the crowd at all...

Earlier tonight, before Chelsea stepped onto the stage, he actually had wanted the club just to stop Jacob Ward and the Snyders from getting their hands on its spy network.

Now, though, after watching Chelsea put on this whole circus just to force the title onto him, his gut told him the water here was way deeper than it looked... and Jude never walked into a trap blind.

"Tell me what you’re really after," Jude said.

"I swear I’m not after anything... I just want to give you the club!" Chelsea whispered, her voice getting so soft she was begging him to take it. "Just take it, Jude! Even if you don’t want to deal with running the place, Vanessa is staying as General Manager to handle the whole building for you!"

Down on the floor, every CEO watching the stage looked ready to throw up blood.

Five minutes ago, Arthur Snyder offered five billion dollars in cash and couldn’t even touch the door... and right now, Chelsea Lee was begging Jude Lawson to take the keys.

The difference was enough to drive any man insane...

At the front table, Arthur glared at Jude’s back with hatred, jealousy, and shock tearing him apart.

Seeing Jude wouldn’t budge, Chelsea straightened up and put on a serious face. "Besides, Jude, you already signed a binding legal bid and won the pool. Whether you say yes right now or not, on paper the Heavens Club is already yours."

Jude took a slow breath, his eyes locking onto hers. "Chelsea, we both know you didn’t pull this whole stunt for fun. Unless you give me a straight answer about why you’re handing me this place, I won’t touch the deed... and even if you force it onto my desk, I’ll sell the whole building tomorrow morning."

Looking right back into his eyes, Chelsea said, "I’ll tell you everything you want to know... but you have to sign the ownership papers with me on stage first."

"If I sign the papers right now, you tell me the whole truth tonight?" Jude pressed, his eyes narrowing.

"Every single word, I swear," Chelsea nodded with seriousness.

"Fine. Bring the contract," Jude said.

The instant he agreed, a flash of victory lit up Chelsea’s eyes.

She turned toward the side of the stage and called out, "Vanessa... bring the final contract over. It’s time to sign!"

"Right away, Miss Lee," Vanessa nodded with a bow, turning quickly to grab the binder.

***

By the time the signed papers for the Heavens Club were locked in Vanessa Canfield’s vault and the late-night crowd cleared out, it was past 2:00 in the morning...

Jude drove a half-asleep Chloe back to the guest wing of the Sovereign Estate so she could crash for the night.

The next morning, bright sunlight poured through the floor-to-ceiling glass of the $300 million mansion.

Anna stood at the bottom of the spiral stairs, watching Jude and Chloe walk down together.

Where insane money goes, gorgeous women follow, Anna thought to herself behind her polite poker face.

With Jude’s looks, natural swagger, and the fact that he ran the legendary Sovereign Estate as "Mr. Lawson," what woman in this city wouldn’t fall for him?

Stepping forward with perfect posture, Anna bowed slightly. "Good morning, sir. Breakfast is served in the sunroom."

"Thanks," Jude nodded, noticing her coat. "Didn’t you ask for the day off today? Don’t wait on us... head out whenever you want."

"No rush, sir," Anna said smoothly. "I’ll head out once you leave."

Beside Jude, Chloe looked at Anna, wide-eyed, before whispering, "Jude... who is she?"

"Meet Anna. She runs the estate," Jude said.

Chloe almost choked on her own breath. His housekeeper?!

With that CEO aura coming off Anna, if someone had told Chloe she ran a Wall Street hedge fund, she would’ve believed it in a heartbeat.

Having a woman of this caliber just managing his house made Jude’s wealth feel even crazier.

"Anna, this is Chloe... a friend of mine, and Harrison Liu’s granddaughter," Jude added.

Shaking off her shock, Chloe gave a smile. "Good morning, Anna."

A flash of surprise crossed Anna’s eyes. "The Liu family? Patriarch Harrison Liu is your grandfather?"

"Yes," Chloe blinked, pleasantly surprised. "You know him?"

"Only by reputation," Anna replied, though her respect for Jude shot up another notch.

She had assumed the girl he brought home at 2:00 AM was just another pretty party girl from Midtown... not the prized granddaughter of Harrison Liu himself!

After a quiet breakfast overlooking the cliffside gardens, Jude pulled the black Rolls-Royce Cullinan around to drive Chloe back into Midtown.

As the gates of the estate shut behind them, Chloe still felt like she was floating in a dream.

Not only had she spent the night at the most famous private mansion in New York, she now knew the biggest secret in the city: that the guy who saved her grandfather’s life and Lawson were the exact same person!

Her grandfather, Harrison Liu, had spent the last 2 years quietly recovering out in the countryside, completely off the city’s radar.

Nobody expected that the moment he stepped foot back in Manhattan 2 days ago, an acute heart attack would nearly drop him on the sidewalk... or that Jude would step in at just the right second to stabilize his breathing before the paramedics arrived.

"Jude, we’re still on for lunch at noon, right?" Chloe asked, turning to him from the passenger seat. "Grandfather has been hearing rumors about the owner of the Sovereign Estate for months. If he finds out the guy who saved him is actually Mr. Lawson, he’s going to lose his mind."