Cold Husband Burning Regret: The Divorce He Couldn't Handle novel Chapter 464

He remembered the girl.

She was frail, younger than any of the boys, but she was the only one who hadn’t cried. She hadn’t been part of his original plan. Unfortunately, she had seen their faces.

He hadn’t always been like this. He used to be a good man, a hardworking nobody who groveled for the rich and powerful. He needed money for his mother’s dialysis treatments. Back then, his dignity meant less to him than cash.

With the help of the Carstairs family, he had become a bank director by twenty-nine. To outsiders, his future was bright. But only he knew the truth: he was a director in name only, with no real power over the bank’s finances. Then the six million went missing, and he was made the scapegoat. His mother, fresh from a kidney transplant, was hounded until she jumped from a building. His wife, unwilling to stand by a disgraced man, took their child and left him.

That was when he learned that the only way to win the game was to be the one making the rules.

The kidnapping was his game.

He savored the memory of those arrogant, powerful men, who had once looked down on him, now begging him over the phone. If human life was worthless to them, then the lives of their children were worthless to him.

He just hadn’t expected three of them to escape.

Neely’s thoughts snapped back to the present. He calmly fastened the last button on his shirt. “In that case, I suppose I should pay your niece a proper visit.”

…

The next day at the hospital, Charlotte was passing a patient’s room when she saw a news report on the television about Rosemary Howard’s deteriorating health. She stopped in her tracks.

Grandma was sick. It had to be because of Evander.

A wave of complex emotions washed over her. Rosemary had always been kind to her, but now, with the old woman so ill, she couldn’t even visit. She was afraid Rosemary would blame her.

Judd rushed to her side, steadying her. “Are you alright?”

She numbly shook her head. Looking down, she saw blood dripping from his right forearm.

“You’re hurt.”

“Damn, Professor Carstairs, you need to get that looked at!” Gentry exclaimed, his own face pale.

Judd glanced at his arm as if just noticing the deep gash, the flesh split open. “It must have happened during the fight. I didn’t even feel it…”