Chapter 294: A Blessing In Disguise

Chapter 294: Chapter 294: A Blessing In Disguise

The two heavy-set bodyguards stepped in unison, their broad shoulders effectively sealing off the staircase landing.

Maya’s pulse spiked, hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. Her fingers curled tightly around the strap of her evening bag as Harold Trunk stepped closer, a victorious, greasy grin spreading across his aged face.

"Smart girls learn when to cooperate," Harold murmured, his small, watery eyes scanning her tense posture with predatory satisfaction. "You’ll find that being taken care of by someone like me is far more comfortable than scraping by on student loans."

"Back off," Maya warned, her voice trembling slightly with a mixture of cold fury and rising panic. She scanned the corridor behind them, looking for an opening, but the heavy glass doors leading to the private elevators were locked tight, accessible only by biometric security scanners.

Before either of the guards could lunge forward to grab her arms, a sharp, metallic ping echoed down the private elevator corridor.

The heavy security doors of the private VIP lift slid open with silent, hydraulic precision.

A low murmur of conversation spilled out from the interior cabin, cutting cleanly through the tense air of the landing. Harold and his bodyguards instinctively paused, turning their heads toward the sound.

Out stepped Elias, moving with his usual military crispness, scanning the perimeter with sharp, observant eyes before stepping aside. Right behind him, draped in a razor-sharp charcoal tuxedo, came Jake Rivers, with Catharine walking gracefully by his side in her flowing burgundy silk gown.

The atmosphere on the landing shifted instantly. The air felt heavier, chilled by an invisible, commanding presence that made even Harold Trunk’s arrogant smirk falter for a fraction of a second.

Maya’s breath caught in her throat. ’It’s him...’

Jake had been casually listening to Catharine when Maya’s terrified cry and the commotion drew his attention. His dark, piercing eyes flicked toward the stairs, taking in the scene: two broad-shouldered bodyguards trapping a young woman in an emerald gown, and the flushed, greasy-faced old man barking orders at her.

"Jake..." Beside him, Catharine subtly pulled on the sleeve of Jake’s suit jacket, her hand tightening slightly as a look of intense discomfort and distress crossed her face.

A cold, visceral disgust flared deep within Jake. In his own territory—inside the Meridian Gallery, under his own roof—an uninvited piece of filth was attempting to corner and force a guest. In Jake’s eyes, the man standing there was already as good as dead.

Harold, recovering his bruised ego and relying on his status as an established industry veteran, puffed out his chest and took a half-step toward Jake with a raised, placating hand.

"Ah, Mr. Rivers," Harold began, forcing a loud, booming laugh to assert dominance. "Look, let’s be reasonable here. We’re both men of high standing in this city. I’m sure you understand how these things go with ambitious young girls. Give an old man a bit of face tonight, and we can consider this little misunderstanding between us swept under the rug—"

Jake stopped in his tracks. He didn’t even know who the old man was, nor did he care to ask. Hearing the creature speak of "giving face" like some ancient, entitled old-money patriarch only made the ice in Jake’s eyes turn into pure tundra.

Without taking his eyes off the group, Jake spoke in a low, dangerous murmur that cut through Harold’s babble like a straight razor.

"Elias."

"Sir," Elias replied instantly, stepping forward.

"Clear this trash off my floor."

"Understood."

Before Harold could react or even comprehend the tone, Elias moved with terrifying speed. With a swift, calculated pivot, he slammed his forearm into the chest of the nearest bodyguard, sending the large man crashing backward into the brass railing with a heavy, wheezing gasp. As the second guard lunged forward in shock, Elias swept his leg in a clean, brutal arc, dropping the man hard onto the marble floor with a bone-rattling thud.

Harold’s face drained of all color, his mouth hanging open in complete shock. "W-What is the meaning of this?! Do you have any idea who I—"

"I don’t care who you are," Jake interrupted coldly, stepping forward until he stood just inches from Harold. The towering, suffocating weight of Jake’s aura hit the older man like a physical wall, making Harold’s knees buckle slightly.

"You brought your vile habits into my gallery, put your hands on a guest, and then had the audacity to talk to me about ’face’?" Jake’s voice dropped to an almost silent, lethal whisper. "You don’t have face here. You don’t even have a future."

Harold trembled violently, the sheer terror finally breaking through his arrogant delusion as he looked into eyes that promised absolute, swift destruction.

"Mr. Rivers, you’re going way too far! I was simply having a private conversation with the lady here, and you’re stepping in to interrupt us?!" Harold stammered, trying desperately not to escalate the matter too much.

Jake didn’t bother offering a single word of reply to the blustering chairman.

Completely ignoring Harold, Jake stepped past him and walked straight up to Maya. Seeing the nightmare end so abruptly, the tears Maya had been holding back overflowed down her cheeks. Traumatized by the terrifying realization of how close she had come to being abducted and forced into a nightmare by the disgusting old man, her shoulders trembled with soft, suppressed sobs.

"Are you all right?" Jake asked softly, his tone shifting into a gentle, reassuring calm.

Maya, sniffing softly as she tried to catch her breath, nodded her head through her tears. "I-I am now... thank you..."

As Jake’s thumb gently brushed the remaining moisture from her cheek, Maya’s breath hitched. Standing this close, wrapped in the crisp, expensive scent of cedar and high-end cologne, her chaotic panic melted away instantly. It felt completely surreal—like a classic modern fairy tale where a dark, untouchable prince materialized out of thin air to snatch her straight out of a nightmare. Except this prince didn’t ride a white horse; he commanded billions of marks with a single word.

"I apologize that such an unpleasant thing happened to a guest under my roof," Jake said smoothly.

He then tucked Maya comfortably against his side, his firm grip providing her with an immediate wave of safety and warmth. Turning his head back toward Harold, Jake looked down at the trembling chairman with pitch-black, unreadable eyes.

"What did you say the name of your company was?" Jake asked casually.

Harold, mistaking Jake’s calm demeanor and polite gesture for a sign that he was finally coming to his senses, straightened his lapels and puffed out his chest once more.

"Fate Pharmaceuticals!" Harold declared proudly, a smug sneer returning to his oily face. "Valued at over seven hundred million marks! Now then, Mr. Rivers, hurry up and hand the girl over to me. Do that, and when the time comes, I’ll make sure to thank you properly!"

Beside them, Catharine looked at the old pervert with absolute, unvarnished disgust, leaning closer into Jake.

Jake let out a short, quiet breath that sounded almost like an amused huff. "Here is my proposition, Mr. Trunk. If you transfer fifty percent of your equity in Fate Pharmaceuticals directly to this young lady’s name before midnight... I will overlook this entire incident."

’Fifty percent of Harold’s stake in Fate Pharmaceuticals?’ Maya’s breath caught in her throat, her eyes widening in absolute shock as she stared up at Jake’s profile. She wasn’t sure how much shares Harold held but as the chairman, it wasn’t going to be small. And now half of that was being handed over to a struggling university student just like that? To her, it wasn’t just justice against Harold; it was a cosmic, reality-shattering shift. In one effortless sentence, Jake Rivers was lifting her entirely out of her ordinary life and rewriting her entire future.

Behind Harold, his pale, thin assistant nearly collapsed where he stood. The assistant knew full well the terrifying destruction Jake Rivers could unleash, and he recognized this for what it was: a faint, merciful lifeline extended to a doomed man. But he also knew his boss’s pigheaded arrogance better than anyone.

True to his assistant’s horror, Harold looked at Jake as if he had just heard the most absurd, insane sentence in human history.

His face flushed a deep, violent purple, his eyes bulging out of his head as he lost all control.

"Are you insane?!" Harold screamed at the top of his lungs, his voice cracking violently across the quiet marble landing. "Fifty percent of my company?! To a broke, worthless little brat?! Who the hell do you think you are, Jake Rivers?!"

Jake didn’t even blink. He tilted his head slightly, his expression remaining completely unbothered.

"Is that your final answer, Mr. Trunk?" Jake asked quietly. "Are you going to sign the transfer documents, or would you prefer I skip the paperwork and simply dismantle the little company you’re so proud of before tomorrow morning?"

The casual, absolute certainty in Jake’s voice sent a sudden, icy shockwave straight down Harold’s spine.

In that fraction of a second, the red mist of rage evaporated, replaced by a cold, paralyzing dread. Harold’s mind violently flashed back to the warning his assistant had whispered to him only moments ago: He completely destroyed the Newman Group... they were worth over a hundred billion marks.

Fate Pharmaceuticals wasn’t even worth a billion. Against a financial leviathan like Jake Rivers, his company was nothing more than a dry leaf in a hurricane. There would be no warning, no court battle, just total, systemic annihilation.

Desperate for an anchor, Harold’s scrambled thoughts raced to high-society connections. ’Darius Rivers.’ He knew Darius Rivers, the head of the Rivers family! They had shared drinks at exclusive political galas. Could he use the family name to reel this monster in? Could Darius put him in his place?

Almost as quickly as the thought arrived, Harold’s heart plummeted. Everyone in Veyra’s upper crust knew that Jake operated entirely outside the traditional shadow of the Rivers family. His multi-billion-mark wealth and his ruthless market dominance were entirely his own doing. If Jake wanted someone erased, even Darius Rivers couldn’t—or wouldn’t—stop him.

Harold’s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water, the color completely draining from his face as the terrifying reality of his situation finally set in.

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