---- Chapter 18 Harper Griffin POV: The reunion between Leo and his grandfather was a torrent of emotion. Mr. Jiang, a proud, formidable man even in his old age, wept openly as he held his healthy, vibrant grandson. Seeing the boy he thought was lost to a fatal disease now thriving was the key that unlocked his silence. The story he told was a sickening tale of corporate greed and betrayal. The "catastrophic structural failure" was a lie. Adler had colluded with a rival faction within the Jiang family, sabotaging the project himself and then framing my parents 'company for it. He used the ensuing scandal to seize control of the Griffin Firm, presenting himself as the savior who could clean up the mess. The financial fraud was just the final act, a way to bleed the company dry before he discarded its husk. With Mr. Jiang's testimony secured, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place. We moved him to the island villa for his own protection, and | returned home to prepare for the final battle. | walked into my mother's house to find a scene from a nightmare. Adler was on his knees at my mother's feet, weeping and begging for forgiveness. My mother sat frozen in her armchair, her face a mask of terror. ---- "Get out," | said, my voice dangerously quiet. He scrambled to his feet, his face lighting up with a desperate, pathetic hope when he saw me. He was a mess-unshaven, his expensive suit rumpled and stained, his eyes red-rimmed and hollow. "Harper," he pleaded. "| was just apologizing to your mother. | want to make things right. | want to show you I've changed." "The time for apologies was years ago, Adler," | said, my voice like ice. "The time for 'making things right' was when you left me bleeding on the side of the road. Or when you locked my parents in a dungeon. Or when you tried to let a six-year-old boy die. Pick one." He flinched at every word. "Please," he whispered. "Just give me one more chance." "Get out of my mother's house," | repeated, my voice rising. | grabbed a fruit basket he had brought-a pathetic, insulting peace offering-and smashed it on the floor. Apples and oranges rolled across the polished wood. "You have tainted this house, and my family, enough." Leo, who had been hiding behind me, peeked out, his small face fierce. "Go away!" he yelled in his small, piping voice. "You're a bad man!" Adler stared at the boy, then back at me, a look of utter desolation on his face. He seemed to finally understand that ---- this was not a game he could win. The confident, arrogant tycoon was gone, replaced by a hollowed-out shell of a man. "It's not me you love, Adler," | said, the final realization settling upon me with a heavy certainty. "You love the idea of me. The girl who adored you unconditionally. The one part of your perfect world you couldn't control, and then lost. You're not in love. You're obsessed with a ghost." He just shook his head, mumbling denials. "I'll prove it to you," he whispered, a strange, manic gleam entering his eyes. "I'll show you how sorry | am. I'll take you somewhere. You'll see." With that cryptic, unsettling promise, he turned and stumbled out the door, a man walking toward his own damnation.