Chapter 71 CHAPTER 71
Realization
The Langford estate felt colder than usual, despite the late summer sun slanting golden rays through the tall windows. Lady Bianca sat in the drawing room, hands restless on her lap. For three days she had called her son’s number without answer. For three days she had felt the quiet tug of dread that mothers often knew before anyone else.
Marcus entered, holding a printed report from one of the family’s financial advisers. His jaw was tight, his usually calm eyes stormy.
“Bianca,” he said, voice low, “it’s true. Ares has liquidated several of his companies here. The holdings were quietly transferred overseas. And he didn’t say a word to us.”
Lady Bianca pressed a hand to her chest. “Overseas? Where?”
“They wouldn’t say. It’s all been made confidential. The only thing they told me is that the bulk of his U.S. interests are gone.” Marcus sighed heavily, throwing the report onto the coffee table. “Our son is moving his empire behind our backs. My empire!”
For the first time in years, Lady Bianca looked really shaken. Ares used to be a very reckless foolish boy partying his life away. They all wanted him to change and grow up. Now he was grown and playing big boy. Since the kids, he had always been difficult, fierce, ambitious, driven but he had never cut them out completely.
She picked up her phone and dialed again. This time, Ares answered. His voice came through the line clipped, emotionless.
“Mother. Father.”
“Ares,” Bianca breathed, relief mixing with pain. “Where are you? Why didn’t you tell us about these transfers? You’ve left the country, haven’t you?”
There was silence. Then Ares’s voice, cool as glass.
“I did. And it’s none of your concern. Stop meddling in my life. Stay out of my business. Stay away from me.”
“I handed over the empire to you,” Marcus said. “It is still mine and you have no right to move without my consent.”
Bianca’s throat tightened. “We are your parents. We have every right…”
“You had your right when I was a child,” Ares cut her off. “Now I am a man. I make my own choices. Do not interfere again.”
And with that, the line went dead.
Marcus clenched his fists, staring at the phone as though he could force Ares to reappear. “He’s… gone.”
Bianca’s eyes glistened, but no tears fell. Her voice was bitter with despair. “Our own son has shut us out.”
“I have gone too soft on him.” Marcus chuckled. “Bianca, your son don’t want to see the gangster side of me. Tell him I have been a bad boy way before he came into existence.”
“Don’t do anything stupid.” Bianca said, almost pleading.
Marcus looked her in the eyes before walking out. “Tell him to get his act together.” He stormed out.
Across the ocean, in a small but wealthy coastal town in Japan, life hummed quietly. It was the kind of place where polished cars lined clean streets, where children in crisp uniforms walked in pairs to school, and where luxury was disguised by subtlety.
In a corner restaurant—one of those charmingly modern places with polished wooden tables, a faint aroma of sesame oil and ginger lingering in the air, a woman balanced a tray carefully on her palm.
Chloe’s once proud figure was slimmer now, her beauty dimmed by exhaustion, but her eyes still carried the same restless hunger for survival. Dressed in a neat black and white uniform, she wove through the tables, placing steaming bowls of ramen in front of a laughing couple, refilling tea cups for businessmen who barely glanced at her.
The irony was not lost on her. Only months ago, she had been locked away, begging Lady Bianca for a chance to escape. Now she was free, but her freedom had led her here—waiting tables in a foreign land, far away from everything she once schemed for.
As she leaned over to clear a table, the chatter around her blurred into white noise. But in the back of her mind, she couldn’t shake the uncanny sense of closeness.
Somewhere in this very town, Ares Langford was living wth Tessa’s children.
She didn’t know it yet, but the same streets she walked, the same quiet corners she passed after work, might easily cross with his path. Fate had drawn them into the same orbit once more.
Chloe balanced another tray, her hands steady, her eyes lowered. To the diners, she was just another waitress in a bustling restaurant. But deep down, she knew her story was far from over.
And as the night deepened, she carried another round of steaming dishes to the guests.
“Why are you so slow?” The customer asked, mocking her with her friends.
“Lady, have you had a shower today? You stink!” The other yelled.
They all laughed at her. One reached and poured a whole bottle of perfume on her.
Chloe stood there, trying so hard to hold herself.
“Now you smell better .” The younger girl said, smiling. “You’re welcome…”
Chloe stormed out in anger and sat at the backyard, screaming. What more could she do? She needed this job.
Lady Bianca wasn’t even kind enough to leave her with some money. She wiped her account clean.
“Hey, get out and attend to my customers.” An older woman yelled from inside. “I didn’t employ you to occupy space.”
Chloe sighed, walking back inside.