She Sent Me to Prison , Now I Own the World She Lost

Five years ago, at my own engagement banquet, I broke my fiancée's little assistant's nose with a single punch.

To avenge her precious assistant, my fiancée had me thrown in prison with her own hands.

The day I walked out,

it happened to be Fay Galloway and Toby Weiss's wedding.

Everyone expected me to go on a rampage.

But I didn't crash their ceremony the way they all assumed I would.

Instead, I boarded a flight to another city and vanished without a trace.

……

Five years later.

I came back to the country with my wife, and it happened to fall on my birthday.

We'd made plans to celebrate together.

What I didn't expect was that when I arrived at the restaurant we'd agreed on, I'd run straight into Toby Weiss, surrounded by a fawning entourage.

"Well, well, well. Look who it is."

"If it isn't the great Mr. Gilbert himself."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. A few years go by and our mighty CEO can't even afford a decent set of clothes? What happened to you?"

Toby's voice carried across the room, dripping with mockery.

The entire lobby fell silent in an instant. Every pair of eyes turned toward us.

I glanced down at what I was wearing.

The clothes looked simple enough, no designer logos anywhere.

But every piece had been handcrafted by Italian artisans, each one starting at seven figures.

Not that I owed Toby Weiss an explanation.

I ignored him and picked up the menu from the table.

My indifference only made him angrier.

He snatched the menu right out of my hand, his voice jumping an octave:

"What's the matter? Two years working the sewing machines in lockup and you went deaf? I'm talking to you. Did you not hear me?"

The words hadn't even settled before the whole restaurant erupted in murmurs.

"An ex-convict?"

"He looks respectable enough. Never would've guessed he'd done time."

"God, how did someone like that even get in here?"

I tuned out the whispers and the pointed stares.

Slowly, I lifted my gaze and looked at Toby, my expression blank:

"Do I know you?"

Toby blinked, then his face twisted with rage:

"Duke Gilbert, who the hell are you pretending for? You actually think you're still that hotshot CEO from back in the day?"

"Prison must've fried whatever brains you had left."

"Do you even know where you are? This is The Amethyst Grand. The most exclusive restaurant on the south side. A single cup of coffee here costs hundreds of dollars."

"Take a good look in the mirror before you embarrass yourself. You think a broke nobody like you can afford to eat here? Get out. Go on, get lost before you make an even bigger fool of yourself."

Contempt twisted every line of Toby's face as he kicked the table in front of me.

A deafening crash.

The coffee cup rattled violently, brown liquid sloshing over the rim.

I stared at the dark stain spreading across the white cuff of my shirt, and my expression hardened.

This shirt was a birthday gift from my wife. Today was the first time I'd worn it.

I fixed Toby with a cold stare:

"Apologize."

Toby let out a scoff:

"You want me to apologize?"

"Duke Gilbert, you must be out of your damn mind."

"If anyone's apologizing, it's you. Breathing the same air as a lowlife like you is already killing my appetite."

With that, Toby turned toward the entrance and barked:

"Security!"

"Where the hell is security? You people letting any stray off the street walk in now? Do you all want to lose your jobs?"

Two security guards approached, hesitation written across their faces.

Right then, the restaurant manager came rushing over.

One look at Toby's expression and the manager broke into a jog to reach him.

"Mr. Weiss, what seems to be the problem? Whatever it is, just tell me and I'll take care of it right away."