Old Dreams Fade

He immediately straightened, his eyes lighting up.

“Tell me. I’ll do anything.”

That fearless look on his face actually made me pause for a moment.

“...Do you have final say over Langford Group’s fuel trades?”

The office fell quiet for a few seconds.

Miles blinked, as if he had not understood, or as if he had understood but could not believe it.

Then he nodded hard.

“I do. I do!” he added quickly. “Victor controls a lot of things, but this part is mine!”

There was a cautious hint of pride in his voice.

I had him sit down. As I applied medicine to his elbow, I listened to him stumble through Langford Group’s industrial layout.

He got stuck now and then when he spoke, but once he talked about the part he was responsible for, he was unexpectedly clear and organized.

After a long moment of thought, I set down the cotton swab.

“Call Victor. Tell him I want to talk.”

Miles had been under Langford Group’s surveillance for a long time. He just did not know it yet.

Instead of cooperating in secret, I might as well put my cards on the table.

The light that had just returned to Miles’s eyes dimmed again.

“Oh... right. Right.”

He lowered his head and mumbled as he took out his phone.

“Yeah. I’m this dumb, so of course you’d have to go to Victor in the end.”

The corners of his eyes reddened. His voice was muffled, carrying a childish kind of grievance.

I was helpless. I had just opened my mouth to explain when my phone rang again.

It was Bianca.

I answered, and her soft voice came through.

“Clara, Evan had too much to drink. Could you come pick him up? It isn’t really appropriate for him to stay at my place all the time...”

In the background, Evan’s drunken voice came through indistinctly.

“Clara... she’ll come back... Where else can she go without me... She still has to beg me for that Shaw project...”

I hung up at once.

Then I turned to my secretary, my voice calm.

“Terminate every partnership with Pierce Group. Once the capital withdrawal is complete, redirect all funds to Langford Group.”

The office fell quiet again.

I turned back. Miles was still sitting on the sofa with his head down, fiddling over and over with the bandage I had just wrapped.

I sighed.

“How about I teach you a game?”

Miles looked up. A thin mist clung to his eyes as he stared at me in confusion.

I raised an eyebrow and leaned slightly closer.

I’ll teach you a game.

If you do well, once the game is over, I’ll hand you Langford Group.

Meanwhile, Evan sat restlessly spinning the glass in his hand, then tilted his head back and downed his third shot of hard liquor.

He had pretended to be drunk earlier. Clearly, he had been offering Clara a way out.

But why did she have to be so ungrateful?

Bianca sat beside him and spoke as if the thought had only just occurred to her.

“Evan, Clara seemed very close to Miles tonight. I saw them leave together just now... I wonder what they’re doing now.”

As she spoke, the corners of her lips curved slightly.

According to her expectations, Evan should have sneered. He should have been disdainful. He should have been utterly disappointed in Clara.

After all, what man could tolerate his fiancée leaving with an idiot?

But Evan stopped moving.

In his eyes, something flashed that Bianca had never seen before.

Unwillingness. Irritation. And a trace of... jealousy.

Bianca froze.

Evan set the glass down heavily on the table and gave a cold laugh.

“He’s just a toy. Clara isn’t that kind of person. She’s only using Miles to make me angry.”

He stood and walked to the window, his tone gradually steadying.

“Besides, we formally sign the contract in two days. Without Pierce Group, where else would she find a ready-made partner? Clara wouldn’t joke about something like this.”

As soon as he finished speaking, the office door was shoved open.

His secretary stumbled in, her face deathly pale.

“Mr. Pierce! Just now... just now, Miss Shaw terminated every partnership with us!”