Chapter 488 Damian's Story
Soon, Damian's car arrived at Justice Peak Law Firm.
Without notifying the receptionist, Damian barged straight into Sean's office.
Sean was assigning tasks to Lynn. Seeing the murderous look on Damian's face, he was momentarily stunned, then smiled, "Mr..."
Damian threw a punch, quick and fierce, knocking Sean to the ground immediately.
Radiating a menacing aura, his tired, bloodshot eyes fixed on Sean, who was supporting his upper body on one knee. He grabbed Sean's arm. "Where's Ashley?"
Sean glanced at Lynn, "You go out first, and don't let anyone in."
Lynn was dumbfounded!
Who was this strange man? He came in and started throwing punches, how rude!
She looked at Damian, trembling, and then froze.
This man was incredibly handsome.
Even standing next to Sean, he didn't lose an ounce of his noble aura. His features were deep and well-defined, his body tall and straight, and his presence was just as imposing as Sean's.
"Get out!" Sean was a bit angry and ordered again.
Lynn was snapped out of her fantasy, her heart pounding as she quickly left.
Sean locked Damian's wrist with one hand and twisted it forcefully, "Mr. Hearst, barging into my territory and hitting people without a word, I can press charges for this behavior right now."
Sean had been trained by his father and grandfather for years, so he wasn't weak. The two men stood in a standoff, neither able to overpower the other.
Damian spoke each word clearly, "Where is Ashley?"
Sean blocked his punch with his arm, not letting him touch him at all, "What right do you have to ask where she is? She just went to a place where you can't hurt her."
Damian's neck muscles tensed, and he pressed Sean's shoulder against the wall, "So it was you. Do you think sending her to Sylvania means I can't find her?"
Sean looked at him coldly. The usually arrogant Damian was particularly annoying today, "Is Mr. Hearst looking for a dead person?"
Damian's eyes narrowed like a hawk's, and he pressed down on Sean's throat, trying to cut off his breath.
Sean sneered, "She asked me to tell you, if you want a corpse, go ahead and look for her. Otherwise, don't disturb her life, Mr. Hearst..." Sean took a difficult breath, "I don't know what happened between you two, but for a kind-hearted woman to say something like that, she must have been hurt deeply."
Damian slowly released his grip on Sean's neck, "I have something to say to her. I must see her."
"If Mr. Hearst insists, she really will give you a corpse. You should know how stubborn she is."
Yes, she left so decisively, without any warning or prelude, which showed she had made up her mind completely.
Damian had seen Ashley's determination before.
Damian had never yielded to anyone in his life, but at this moment, he gathered all his strength and said calmly, "I have a few words for you to pass on to her."
Sean shook his head, "Sorry, Mr. Hearst, I can't contact Ms. Astor either. I just sent her to Sylvania. She said she wanted to walk the rest of the way alone and didn't want to see anyone."
The office suddenly fell silent.
Damian's forehead veins bulged, his eyes bloodshot, his jaw clenched, muscles taut along his jawline, his neck stiff, and two thick veins seemed about to burst.
He rarely lost his voice, but his expression already conveyed his emotions.
Sean picked up a cigarette, lit it, and took a deep drag, "I looked into the Astor family's background. Her father embezzled a sum from KM, and after the company went bankrupt, he refused to repay the debt, becoming a defaulter. Whether it's true or not seems debatable."
Sean handed another cigarette to Damian's trembling hand, "She returned to fill the huge gap in the Astor Group, but Mr. Hearst, the one who repeatedly pushed her back underwater after she barely surfaced, was you. You don't deserve Ashley."
Damian watched the faint white smoke from the cigarette, his eyes darkening as if night had fallen, shrouding all light, plunging the world into endless chaos.
"If you still care about her, if you have any compassion for her, don't disturb her life anymore. Ms. Astor knows you're looking for her everywhere. She doesn't dare use her phone, buy tickets under her real name, or use her credit card. You've pushed someone who loves you to this extent, Mr. Hearst, it's too much."
"She finally decided to return to Sylvania. Please let go and let her start over."
Late at night, Imperial Residence.
Outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, the stars were sparse, and a crescent moon hung between the clouds, moving with the wind, making the whole world sway.
In the living room, lit by a single floor lamp, Damian sat alone on the sofa, his defeated gaze fixed on the lit cigarette in his hand. The glaring red was slowly consumed by ash, only to glow red again with each drag.
The long, lonely night seemed endless, pressing heavily on him, almost suffocating him.
This room was filled with traces of Ashley.
It seemed like just yesterday when she was beaming with joy while walking through the furniture store, but in the blink of an eye, the cold furniture was just a pile of emotionless wood.
The kitchen would no longer have her busy figure, he would never again smell the aroma of pancakes or see her adorably flustered manner.
One cigarette after another, Damian couldn't remember how long he had been smoking, his entire being enveloped in a cloud of nicotine, yet his nerves were not numbed. Instead, in the silent night, he was more awake.
Awake, watching his heart break piece by piece.
Awake, letting memories cut through his mind like a knife.
He even remembered the first time he met Ashley.
Back then, Ashley wore a white dress, light and lively, with a sweet smile on her face, somewhat ingratiating, deliberately approaching him but not daring to let him notice. Yet every time he turned to look at her, those wet eyes were always gazing at him.
He remembered their wedding six years ago, Ashley joyfully holding his arm, as happy as if she had the whole world.
He remembered the day of their divorce three years ago, Ashley staring at him, asking word by word, "Did you really never love me?"
He remembered a few months ago when he met Ashley again.
At that time, his heart was filled with too much hatred, too much resentment.
She was lying in bed with another man, barely clothed, and when caught, she denied it with a mouthful of lies.
She, along with her father Todd and brother Dorian, embezzled over sixty billion dollars from KM's subsidiary, causing a direct loss of over two hundred billion dollars, and KM's stock price dropped by 0.2 percentage points. The board of directors also impeached him because of it.
She was the last person Faye contacted before her death. If it weren't for Ashley's misdirection, Faye wouldn't have driven up the mountain alone, wouldn't have had the car accident, and wouldn't have died with no body found.
Nicole had multiple hospitalizations due to mental distress, Bryan lost his beloved daughter and his hair turned white overnight, and Anthony was in the ICU for half a month.
During that time, the Hearst family's world was collapsing.
He gritted his teeth and held on, driven by hatred.
He wanted to strangle her with his own hands, to crush the Astor family.
Finally, he saw Ashley return, as if nothing had happened, holding her lawyer's certificate with a clear conscience, constantly accusing him of being cruel and heartless.
At first, he intended to retaliate, to make her taste betrayal, to make the entire Astor family pay for their betrayal.
But soon, he found that revenge brought him no pleasure, only guilt for Ashley's tears, unable to be relieved.
Seeing her lying in the fire, he rushed in without thinking.
At that moment, he was very afraid, afraid of losing her completely.
He wasn't sure when or where he started to feel love, wanting to be with her, wanting to keep her by his side.
But he also knew how much Ashley rejected and resisted him, wishing never to have any interaction with him again.
So, he could only use contracts and coincidences to make her compromise, to make her nod, to bind her to him.
He never realized that he was humiliating her dignity and trampling on her life in the name of love.
In the end, the one who didn't understand love, who couldn't love, who wielded a double-edged sword to hurt both himself and others, was him.
Amelia was right to remind him, Ashley had no reason to betray him, those photos were of unknown origin, clearly someone had framed her.
The Astor Group's bankruptcy was also manipulated, and the fund transfer was not voluntary on Dorian's part.
All of this hid a deeper conspiracy.
As for Faye's death, Ashley was not the culprit, she shouldn't bear any pain for it.
He had imposed his pain and resentment on her, stubbornly believing she caused all the tragedies.
Ashley had long wanted to cut ties with him, but to protect her family, to find out who forced Todd to stay abroad, to get her qualification certificate, she reluctantly stayed by his side.
Without these external constraints, she would have long flown away from his world.
Damian smiled bitterly, he was truly a failure, using so many shameless methods to keep the one he loved.
There were many ways to express love, and he chose the stupidest one.
In the name of love, every cut was fatal.
Ashley left, it was an explosion of long-suppressed frustration, wasn't it?
In this world, there is surely karma.
So, he didn't even have the right to see that child, not even knowing if their child was alive.
The harm he caused Ashley, even death wouldn't be enough to repay.
He was just afraid that the revenge would fall on the child.
Did he still have the right to say sorry?
Did he still have the chance to say I love you?
Damian supported his forehead with his hand, suppressing the sharp pain, not even noticing the cigarette burning down to his fingers.
Just like that, he sat in silence for a whole night, and another day.
On the third day, Thomas finally found him. As soon as he opened the door, he smelled the pungent tobacco odor. Damian sat on the sofa like a statue, his long legs stretched out, his whole being exuding an uncontrollable sense of autumnal decay.
"Mr. Hearst, something has happened."
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