I never worried about any suitors circling my fiancée, Antoine. Everyone in our social circle knew who she was connected to, and no one dared cross that line. But after six months studying abroad, I returned to find a young man sitting in Antoine’s front passenger seat as she pulled up to the office. I didn’t confront them then. Instead, I had my secretary arrange a dinner, inviting Antoine and all her close confidantes. How can I put it? A woman who betrays me is easily disposable. But anyone who dares to tempt her, even just thinking about it, will pay the price. “Mr. Williams, Antoine has arrived with seven guests, but there’s one more… not on the list.” Sarah, my secretary, lowered her voice, subtly glancing towards the VIP private dining room. “Who?” I put my phone in my pocket and gestured for her to lead the way. “It’s… the man from the passenger seat.” I let out a soft laugh. It was exactly what I expected. Seven or eight people sat along the long table. When I walked in, they all stood up in unison. Antoine was seated in the middle. She looked startled when she saw me, then instinctively slid one seat over. The young man next to her looked to be in his early twenties, dressed meticulously but plainly. Everyone at the table was silent, the atmosphere thick with tension. Yet the young man, seemingly oblivious, picked up the glass in front of Antoine and took a sip. He even smiled playfully at her. “Antoine, aren’t you going to eat anything tonight? No way, I’m keeping an eye on you.” I stood by the doorway, unmoving. Noticing the unusual tension in the room, he finally noticed me. He tilted his head, gave me a quick look, then surveyed the silent, terrified people in the room before turning back to Antoine. “Who’s this guy? Shows up so late without a word. Antoine, the rules around here are way too lax, aren’t they?” Seeing no one respond, he spoke again, his tone innocent yet self-righteous. “No matter how high your position, basic manners are still required, right? Antoine, you spoil everyone too much; this dinner feels so awkward because of it.” Mark, Antoine’s assistant, went completely white with horror. He finally couldn’t hold back and tugged on the young man’s sleeve. “Chris, this is Mr. Williams. He’s Antoine’s fiancé, and also… the actual power behind the entire corporation.” The private dining room fell silent for a long moment. Chris’s hand, holding the glass, froze mid-air. The playful smile on his face slowly solidified. He put the glass back down. Before Antoine could speak, he piped up. “Oh, her fiancé. Well, you should have come earlier then. Everyone’s been waiting for you.” I sat down, my gaze fixed on Antoine. “Antoine, your intern is quite… interesting.” She finally looked at me, her expression utterly cold. “He’s just a kid, Alexander. Don’t mind him.” “Since when do I concern myself with those who ‘don’t know any better’?” I picked up the menu and turned a page. “Go scrap that car. Get a new one.” Her brow immediately furrowed. “What?” “I don’t want a car that’s had someone else in the passenger seat.” Chris muttered something under his breath. I didn’t catch it, and I didn’t need to. “And,” I closed the menu and looked at her. “Chris needs to be terminated by tomorrow. You’ll personally inform all our partners in the industry: he’s never to be hired again.” Chris’s face finally changed. He abruptly looked up at me. “How dare you!?” “Because I’m Alexander Williams.” Antoine’s face tightened as she started to speak, but she bit back whatever she was going to say. Everyone at the table breathed a collective sigh of relief. I stood up and patted Antoine on the shoulder. “Antoine, you’d better remember why you’re in the position you are today.” Her voice came from behind me, clearly laced with suppressed rage. “Alexander, why do you have to be so ruthless?” “Ruthless?” I pushed the door open, and a gust of wind swept into the corridor. “Seems you still don’t know me well enough.”
It was nearly eleven when I got home. I leaned back on the sofa. Not long after, Antoine returned. “Why are you sitting here by yourself?” “Waiting for you.” She walked over, loosening her cuffs, a barely suppressed irritation in her voice. “You went too far tonight, Alexander. Chris is just an intern, a twenty-two-year-old kid who doesn’t know any better. Was all that really necessary?” “He’s ‘naive,’ and you’re just as naive?” I looked at her, slowly lowering my legs from the sofa. “Antoine, you know what kind of man I am, don’t you?” “Of course I do.” She tugged at her collar, then her voice slowly rose. “You’re just too controlling. An intern sat in my car, and you react like this? What will people outside think?” “Do you think I care what people outside think?” She paused. “I have to take people with me for many things at the company. Giving him a ride when it’s ‘on the way,’ what’s wrong with that?” “On the way?” I chuckled. “Our villa stands on its own private estate; everyone around here knows it. Antoine, what ‘convenient route’ are you talking about?” Her face fell. She didn’t speak for a long time. After a good while, she finally spoke in a low voice. “I’ll take care of the car tomorrow. About Chris… can’t you reconsider? He just graduated.” “What I’ve said stands.” “Alexander!” “If you feel so bad for him,” I interrupted her, getting up and walking towards the bedroom. “You can go comfort him right now. But if you walk out that door, don’t bother coming back.” A long silence followed behind me. When I woke up the next morning, there was a vehicle disposal receipt on the coffee table, next to a copy of Chris’s termination paperwork. The signature block bore Antoine’s handwriting. I picked it up, glanced at it, then put it back down. She wasn’t foolish enough to directly defy me. A short voice message came through on my SnapChat from Sarah. “Mr. Williams, Chris’s termination paperwork is finalized. Antoine signed it herself. But he cried for half an hour at reception when he left, though. Said you’d regret this eventually.” I replied: “Noted.” I’d heard words like that too many times. Not a single person who said them had ever made me regret anything. I’m not someone who enjoys utterly destroying people. But I have one flaw: the harder someone tries to hit me, the harder I hit back. I’ll make sure they know regret will never be mine. During lunch, I received a SnapChat from Antoine. “Car’s replaced, Chris is gone. Is that enough?” I typed a few words back: “Depends on your performance.” She didn’t reply again, and the matter seemed to be over. But a month later, I realized something was off. Antoine had been too quiet lately, uncharacteristically so. That night, lying in bed, I scrolled through my company’s project records for the past six months, focusing on projects she had overseen. I found a new supplier I didn’t recognize, took a screenshot, and sent it to Sarah. “What’s the story with this company?” Sarah’s SnapChat reply came three minutes later. It was long, but one sentence was all I needed to see: “Mr. Williams, I need to check further. The registered legal information for this company is a bit strange.” I stared at the company name for a long time, then placed my phone screen down on the pillow. Before I went to sleep, I sent Antoine a SnapChat: “Breakfast together tomorrow.” She replied quickly: “Okay.” I turned off my phone, closed my eyes, and muttered, “Antoine, you’d better not disappoint me.”
“Mr. Williams, Antoine has been spending a lot of time with a particular company recently. The projects aren’t that significant, but she’s there at least twice a week, not even counting video calls.” Sarah handed me her tablet, showing Antoine’s schedule for the past month. I took it, scanned through, and said, “Continue.” “There’s one more thing…” Sarah hesitated. “After Chris was fired, he started working for *this* company. His position? Assistant to the Business Development Director.” My hand, scrolling the tablet, stopped. “A fresh graduate, blacklisted from the entire industry, suddenly becomes an Assistant Business Development Director?” “That company isn’t on our core partners list; they’re a second-tier supplier. So… we don’t usually pay much attention to smaller operations like that.” I put the tablet down and leaned back in my chair, silent. Sarah stood nearby, not daring to move. After about two minutes, I finally spoke. “How many active projects does that company have with us right now?” “Three. Two are still under contract, and one was just signed.” “Terminate all of them.” Sarah’s pen froze mid-air. “All of them? Mr. Williams, one project already received an advance payment…” “Forget the advance payment. I recall the breach clauses in the contract are in our favor. Have Legal send out the official notice today.” “Okay, anything else?” I picked up my phone, scrolled through my contacts one by one. “Get me a list of all suppliers who work with that company. You call them yourself. Every single company connected to our corporation in this industry will cut ties with them.” “Mr. Williams, isn’t that too big a move?” “This isn’t ‘too big a move’ at all.” I tossed the tablet onto the desk. “When I make someone disappear, I don’t expect them to resurface under a new name. Anyone who built him a bridge will see it immediately torn down. And if it can’t be torn down, I’ll bury the bridge and everyone on it.” Sarah took a deep breath, nodded, and left. That afternoon, Sarah was on the phone non-stop. She later reported back that not a single person dared to refuse. When Antoine returned that evening, her face was grim. Her phone wouldn’t stop ringing. She hung up countless times, only to answer another call, her voice now barely containing her frustration: “I get it! Just don’t panic!” I sat at the dining table, eating. She hung up and looked at me. “Did you do this?” “Yes.” “Do you know that project also impacts us?” “I know.” “Then why?” “Antoine.” I put down my silverware and looked at her. “I told you to fire him and scrap the car, and you did. But then you immediately found him a new spot, using company business as a cover. Did you think I was stupid?” She opened her mouth, but no words came out. “You can call me jealous, controlling, or heartless. But you can’t treat me like an idiot.” I stood up and walked over to her. “This is my last reminder to you: no more petty games.” Antoine stared at me for a long time, complex emotions swirling in her eyes. She finally looked away, her voice raw. “Alexander, can’t you just let people live?” I chuckled. “Who are these ‘people’ you’re talking about?” She didn’t answer. I turned and went into my study. Before closing the door, I dropped one last line. “Antoine Loris, if you defend him one more time, next time it won’t be this simple.”
The news reached Georgina Loris, the family matriarch, faster than I expected. That afternoon, I was in a meeting when Sarah urgently whispered in my ear. “Georgina threw a major fit at the Loris estate. She’s planning to ground Antoine and make her reflect on her actions.” I showed no emotion after hearing that and continued the meeting. Afterwards, Sarah came back. “Antoine… she slammed the door and stormed out. Her father, Christopher, couldn’t even stop her.” “Understood.” “However, Christopher himself issued a Loris family-wide industry blacklist, firing Chris on the spot. This time, the Loris family acted directly, and their methods were even more severe than ours.” I nodded, but I wasn’t worried about the Loris family’s attitude. I was worried about Antoine. Sure enough, Antoine returned at ten that night. The door swung open, hitting the wall with a loud bang. “Alexander.” Her collar was loose, and her eyes were bloodshot. I expected her to come find me tonight, but her disheveled appearance genuinely disappointed me. “Did you go tell my mom?” “I wouldn’t do that.” I didn’t even bother to open my eyes. “Then how did she know?” “You’ve done too much, Antoine. Someone was bound to find out.” She walked up to me, barely suppressing the urge to strike me. “My mom wants to ground me. Are you enjoying this?” “I think you deserved it.” She scoffed, then suddenly slapped her palm on the back of the sofa. “Alexander, what do you want from me? Is an intern really worth all this? You fired him, had every industry connected to you blacklist him, and now even my dad is helping you! He’s just a twenty-two-year-old kid. Can’t you just leave him alone?” I put my teacup down and slowly stood up. “Leave him alone? Antoine, the Loris family’s annual revenue doesn’t even amount to a fraction of my company’s quarterly earnings. Do you honestly think I, Alexander Williams, can’t ‘tolerate’ an intern?” Her expression froze for a moment. “You think I’m jealous?” I took a step forward, and her resolve weakened. “I’m giving you one last chance to maintain your dignity. You know better than anyone how you got where you are. If you dare to throw that dignity away, I’ll flip the whole damn table.” Her throat moved, but she didn’t step back, her hands clenched tightly into fists. “You only ever threaten me.” “I’m not threatening you. I’m reminding you not to lose sight of reality.” The air thickened. She suddenly turned, grabbed the car keys from the coffee table, and headed for the door. “Where are you going?” “Don’t ask.” She didn’t look back. The door slammed shut behind her. I stood there, sighing. Then I sent Antoine one last SnapChat: “Antoine, my patience has run out.”
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