Chapter 232

Chapter 232

The next day at 2 p.m., Stanley arrived half an hour early, waiting in the hallway outside the conference room on the twenty-third floor of PineTech headquarters.

He was wearing a dark gray three-piece suit and carrying a briefcase full of technical documents, standing by the floor-to-ceiling windows. Through the glass, he could see the busy street below — steady streams of traffic, people rushing past.

His eyes drifted to the closed conference room door.

Jessica must already be in there, getting ready.

Over the past three months, they had only crossed paths a handful of times, always in formal business settings. Each time, she kept the perfect professional distance — polite, efficient, detached. As if there had never been anything personal between them.

Stanley took a deep breath, trying to settle the restlessness inside him.

The sound of elevator doors opening made him turn around. Martin stepped out, also holding a folder.

Their eyes met across the hallway.

Martin stopped and looked Stanley over. After a moment, he walked toward him, stopping a few feet away.

A few seconds of silence passed.

Martin turned his head and looked Stanley in the eye. "Mr. Smith, I hear you've been hanging around her lately. I'll give you one piece of advice — if you really love her, stop letting her get distracted because of you."

The words landed like a knife, straight to the heart.

"I know." Stanley's voice came out rough. "I know I'm a burden to her. I know every time she sees me, it brings back three years of pain. I know I should let go."

He gave a bitter smile. "But I can't. Even if all I can do is watch from a distance — just know she's okay — that's better than losing all news of her completely."

Martin stared at him for a long moment. The man standing before him — once arrogant, once untouchable, the heir to the Smith family — now had nothing in his eyes but exhaustion and despair.

"You love her," Martin said. It wasn't a question.

"I love her," Stanley said without hesitation. "Enough to spend the rest of my life making it up to her. Even if she never forgives me."

Martin drew a slow breath, pushing down the ache rising in his chest.

How could he say he didn't love Jessica? How could he say he didn't want to protect her? But standing here, looking at this man who was nearly destroying himself for love, Martin suddenly understood — some love runs deep enough to change a person completely.

And the place Jessica held in her heart had been taken by the man standing before him long before now. Whether what they had was love or hatred, it was too deep to be replaced.

"The review meeting's about to start," Martin finally said, his voice a little softer than before. "Let's go in."

Stanley nodded, and the two of them walked together toward the conference room door.

---

Inside the conference room, Jessica stood at the head of the table, adjusting the projector. She was wearing a sharp dark blue suit, her hair pulled back in a clean, low ponytail — the whole picture of focused, no-nonsense professionalism.

More than a dozen people were already seated on both sides of the table — PineTech's technical team and representatives from Smith Corporation.

The door swung open and Martin and Stanley walked in.

Jessica glanced up. Her eyes landed on Stanley for less than a second, then moved away.

"Good afternoon, everyone." Her voice was clear and steady. "Thank you to the Smith Corporation team for making time for today's technical review. We'll be covering the AI architecture optimization plan and the next phase of our partnership."

Stanley took a seat at the far end of the table, forcing himself to focus on the materials in front of him rather than the familiar yet distant figure at the front of the room.

The meeting moved along smoothly. Jessica's presentation was sharp and precise, and the questions from the technical team were pointed and well-informed. Stanley added a few remarks here and there, keeping things at the right professional distance.

An hour in, the meeting broke for a short recess.

That was when the conference room door flew open.

Everyone turned.

Kaelen stood in the doorway. His hair was a mess, his eyes shot through with red, his suit so wrinkled it looked like he'd slept in it on the floor. His right hand was clenched around something, hidden behind his back.

"Kaelen?" Jessica frowned. "What are you—"

"It's all your fault!" Kaelen's voice was hoarse and wild, cutting her off. "All because of you! You ruined me! You ruined my daughter!"

The air in the room went still.

Martin rose quickly from his seat. "Kaelen, calm down. Whatever's going on, we can—"

"Calm down?" Kaelen let out a sharp, jagged laugh. "How am I supposed to calm down? She's destroying me. She's destroying my daughter."

Tears rolled down his face, but his expression kept twisting into something worse. "You did this, Jessica!"

Jessica stepped back, her face going pale.

Then Kaelen pulled his right hand from behind his back — a jagged piece of glass taken from the break room, edges razor-sharp, catching the light with a cold gleam.

"You wrecked my life!" he screamed, lunging toward Jessica. "Then you're going to pay for it!"

Everything happened in an instant.

The security guards were still outside — no time to react.

Martin tried to move, but he was too far away.

Jessica stood frozen, her mind completely blank.

Then one person moved faster than anyone else in the room.

Stanley shoved back from the far end of the table and crossed the room at a dead sprint, throwing himself in front of Jessica, putting his body between her and Kaelen.

The glass drove deep into his back.

Stanley let out a choked grunt. His body shook violently.

Blood poured from the wound immediately, soaking through his white dress shirt, spreading in a dark stain across the back of his gray jacket.

Kaelen had lost all reason. He kept swinging the broken glass wildly.

"Stop him!" Martin finally reached them, and together with two security guards, they brought Kaelen down.

The glass hit the floor and shattered.

Kaelen was pinned down but kept screaming. "She destroyed me! She destroyed my daughter! She deserves to die! She should—"

The room erupted into chaos.

Someone screamed.

Someone called for an ambulance.

Someone ran out to find the medical office.

But Jessica heard none of it.

She stood there, staring at Stanley as he slowly turned to face her — white as a sheet, cold sweat on his forehead.

Stanley's voice was barely there, but he managed a faint smile. "This time... I finally... kept you safe..."

His trembling hand reached out and grabbed her wrist. The gesture took everything he had left.

Then his eyes closed, and he fell forward.

"Stanley!" Jessica finally snapped back. She caught him, frantic. "Stanley! Wake up!"

But Stanley was already unconscious.

Blood poured steadily from the wound in his back, spreading quickly into a dark, alarming pool on the floor.

Jessica pressed her hands against the wound on reflex, trying to stop the bleeding. Warm blood seeped through her fingers, staining her hands, her clothes, her vision.

"Don't go to sleep," she heard herself say, her voice shaking. "Stanley, don't go to sleep... please..."

But Stanley didn't respond.

His color kept draining. His breathing grew fainter.

The sound of an ambulance siren rose in the distance, growing closer.

Paramedics rushed into the conference room and lifted Stanley onto a stretcher.

"Are you family?" one of them asked.

Jessica nodded. She didn't even know what she was doing.

"Come with us."

She followed the stretcher out of the conference room, into the elevator, into the ambulance.

The whole time, she held Stanley's blood-covered hand, her fingers trembling so badly she could hardly grip.

The ambulance tore through the city streets. Inside, the paramedics worked on Stanley in a controlled rush, monitors sending out urgent, rapid alerts.

"Blood pressure dropping!"

"Heart rate unstable!"

"Move faster!"

Jessica sat to the side and watched them cut away Stanley's clothing, revealing the wounds across his back — deep, to the bone.

The blood was still coming.

So much blood.

Her hands were soaked through with it — sticky and cold.

"Stanley," she whispered, her voice nearly gone. "Don't leave me... please..."