Chapter 4

Walking into the hotel, I saw employees had already arrived.

Scarlett and Liam looked at me, sharing a weird smile.

I ignored them, sat down calmly, and turned on my phone's voice recorder. Maybe I could get Liam to slip up when he was drunk.

When the time came, most top performers still weren't there—but some uninvited guests showed up instead.

"Tyler, Jake—what are you guys doing here?"

Those two had slacked off all last year, breaking company rules and harassing female employees. They were basically thugs. If Liam hadn't kept protecting them, I would've fired them months ago.

I barely finished speaking when Liam cut in smoothly.

"They were just passing by.Since they're here, let them stay."

Then he told them, "You two, stay sharp. Keep Mr. Alex's glass full."

They nodded quickly.

Once the banquet started, everyone there began toasting me.

Soon I started feeling dizzy.

I tried to stop drinking, but Liam suddenly held me down, telling Tyler and Jake to force my mouth open.

"Before we came, Mr. Alex said he's in a great mood today—no holding back! Anyone else want to toast? Hurry up! Don't keep Mr. Alex waiting!"

The others hesitated when they saw this.

Then Mark, the CFO, poured a glass of wine straight down my throat.

"Mr. Alex, here's to you!"

The alcohol made me dizzy. I was pinned down, unable to speak.

Liam shouted:

"See? Mr. Alex doesn't mind! Everyone have another toast. Anyone who doesn't is dissing Mr. Alex!"

Scarlett chimed in: "My husband's in a good mood—you all better drink up! Anyone who doesn't gets fired tomorrow!"

No one dared hesitate after that. They kept pouring wine down my throat.

Liam leaned in and whispered: "I offered you the mansion, but you said no. Had to do this the hard way, huh? Pathetic."

I was furious. That bastard was playing dirty!

But I was too drunk to fight back.

Liam, seeing his plan work, pulled Scarlett into a kiss right in front of everyone!

And everyone acted like they didn't see a thing.

When the banquet ended, Liam sent everyone home.

That's when Ryan—Liam's right-hand man—finally showed up and whispered something to him.

Liam grinned. He told Ryan to take me to the mansion.

After tying me up, Liam smirked at me.

I stared daggers at him, then spat in his face.

"Liam, what the hell do you want?!"

"I treated you like family, made you Vice President! How could you do this?!"

I barely finished when Liam kicked me.

"Shut the hell up!"

"But since we're doing this, you might as well die knowing the truth. Why do you think I bought that mansion at the press conference? So everyone would think I lived there. Remember David? He gets out tonight, and he's coming here to kill me. And you're gonna take the fall."

"I already sent my guys to the prison. They even gave David the exact address. Just sit tight."

I ground my teeth. "You framed him for embezzlement! And you're proud of it?!"

Liam smirked. "So you figured that out? But don't you wanna know why I'm so sure he'll come for revenge?"

I muttered, "If it was just the frame job, he wouldn't murder someone. Unless..."

Liam laughed. "Exactly! I had his wife killed for kicks, and his kid? Sold to traffickers."

"Every time I visited him in prison, I told him how I messed with his wife and how his son got chopped up by those traffickers. I wanted to push him over the edge—use him one last time to take everything from you."

My blood ran cold. I stared at him. "Does Scarlett know about this?"

Liam grinned. "Do you really think she'd help tie you up if she knew I'd killed someone's wife?"

"Oh, and you didn't happen to have a recorder on, did you?"

Liam patted me down, found my phone, checked it, and scoffed. "Thought so."

He smashed my phone against the floor and stomped on it.

"Alex, you've always been such a chump. Never saw it coming, did you? Everything you built—just gonna be my payout. I'll swing by tomorrow morning to clean up your body. Ha ha ha."

After his maniacal laughter, Liam hit me with a stick, knocking me out cold. Then he laid me flat, making it look like I was asleep.

Before leaving, he told someone not to lock the mansion door.

Only after making sure David could get in easily did he leave, looking satisfied.

I don't know how much time passed before someone shook me awake.

I looked at the person and smiled faintly.

"Did you record everything he just said?"