Chapter 2The Runaway Bride Regrets It All

This time, I wasn't going to let her get away with it.

I posted a statement of my own.

"The Sterlings and Lawsons' marriage alliance is canceled. Effective immediately, our companies will have no further business dealings or partnerships."

"Mr. Sterling, are you sure you want to pull your investment from Evermont Group? 50 million dollars isn't a small amount. Are you really not going to reconsider?" Claire asked hesitantly.

"Pull it. I've already announced the wedding is off. I don't want Mia to see another cent of my money," I said.

"Understood. I'll coordinate with the company right away. We should be able to complete the withdrawal within three days."

After hanging up, I drove back to the house I had bought for our wedding.

The house was mine. Now that our engagement was over, I had every right to take it back. It was time to go in and clear out everything that belonged to her—and everything else that had no business being there.

But I'd only been gone for one night, and they'd already changed the keypad code.

Mia opened the door wearing a man's shirt, a bright smile on her face.

"Ethan, you're back so soon—"

But the moment she saw me standing on the other side of the door, her smile vanished.

"Why are you here?" she demanded. "Did you come crawling back to beg me to marry you?"

Then, as if she suddenly remembered she had something to accuse me of, her expression hardened.

"Adrian, that video you leaked yesterday caused Ethan serious problems. He got fired because of it. If you can't figure out how to compensate him, then I'm not marrying you!"

I stared at her coldly.

Her body was covered in red marks, and her lips were swollen, with a small split at the corner. I didn't need to ask what had happened between her and Ethan the night before.

And yet, after everything, she still had the nerve to demand that I compensate Ethan.

The sheer audacity was almost laughable.

I was about to tell Mia to pack her things and leave when Ethan appeared behind her. He casually slipped an arm around her waist, as though this were his home and I were the one intruding.

"Adrian, what brings you here? Shouldn't you be busy dealing with all the negative press online?"

He gave me a mocking smile before adding, "I never imagined Mia would go this far to help me. She even let you take the blame for something this serious."

Mia snorted. "He deserves it."

Then she looked at me with an air of superiority.

"Adrian, if you give Ethan the position of deputy CEO at Evermont Group, I might consider clearing your name. After that, I'll think about whether we should still get married."

The threat couldn't have been clearer. Apparently, she thought my announcement canceling our wedding was nothing more than a tantrum, something she'd be able to undo whenever she felt like it.

I let out a cold laugh.

"Ethan was just a junior employee at his last company. Do you seriously expect me to make him the deputy CEO? Do you really think he can handle the job?"

I paused before adding, "And besides, I was the one who helped you build Evermont Group from the ground up. Aren't you worried about what your employees will think when you turn around and kick out the person who built the company for you?"

I'd built Evermont Group one deal at a time for Mia. I'd traveled across the country to recruit the company's core technical talent and spent years laying the foundation for everything she had today. In many ways, I'd practically raised the company from the ground up.

Without me, Evermont Group would have been nothing more than a house of cards.

And now she actually thought she could bring Ethan in and kick me to the curb.

Mia looked at me with nothing but disdain.

"You helped me? Adrian, without me, you'd still be some broke kid delivering food!

"You really think you're the heir of the Sterling family? Ethan already told me everything. You don't even have any inheritance rights to the Sterling family fortune. I'm the only thing you have left to rely on."

Ethan sneered.

"Adrian, you used to deliver food after you were kicked out of the family?"

He gave me a mocking once-over.

"Maybe you should do whatever it takes to keep Mia happy. Otherwise, you might find yourself delivering food again someday."

I clenched my fists.

I hadn't started delivering food back then for no reason. Mia had been scammed out of more than two million dollars, and if I hadn't found a way to pay the money back in time, she could have ended up in prison.

Back then, she had been so moved by what I'd done that she promised she would never marry anyone but me.

Now, she was using that same sacrifice as ammunition to humiliate me.

I looked around the house we'd once planned to make our home and swallowed my anger. None of that mattered anymore. Right now, my priority was getting these two out of the house.

As for the deputy CEO position, I couldn't care less about it. I'd already pulled my investment from Evermont Group, and I was almost certain the company wouldn't be able to hold on much longer without my backing.

So I gave Mia exactly what she wanted.

"Fine. I'll give Ethan the deputy CEO position at Evermont Group."

Mia's eyes lit up, but before she could celebrate, I continued, "On one condition. You have two hours—get every single one of your belongings out of this house."

She seemed to take my words as a sign that I'd finally given in. Her face brightened, and she stepped forward to kiss me.

"I knew you'd never refuse me!"

Then she smiled as though she were reassuring me about something that should have been obvious.

"I know you're upset about what Ethan and I did here. Don't worry. We won't come back here to have fun anymore."

She seemed completely oblivious to the disgust on my face.

"The wedding is still happening in three days!"