Chapter 2
The next few weeks made Veronica bolder.
Power had made her careless.
She openly renovated the mansion using company funds.
Luxury furniture arrived daily.
Designer handbags filled entire closets.
Eric purchased a sports car worth more than most employees earned in ten years.
Neither bothered hiding it anymore.
“Soon everything will legally belong to us,” Eric bragged.
Dylan simply continued washing company vehicles.
Watching.
Listening.
Recording.
One afternoon he overheard something unexpected.
Eric was speaking with the company accountant.
“Destroy the older files,” Eric ordered.
“What if someone investigates?”
“No one will.”
The accountant looked nervous.
Eric grinned.
“My stepbrother is too stupid to understand finances.”
Dylan stood outside the office door.
Silent.
The accountant noticed him through the glass.
For a moment, fear flashed across the man's face.
That reaction confirmed something.
People inside the company knew more than they admitted.
The following day Dylan visited his father privately.
A nurse helped facilitate communication.
Using a tablet, his father slowly typed a message.
Three words.
"I trusted wrong."
Dylan squeezed his father's hand.
“I know.”
Then came the reveal that changed everything.
The nurse handed Dylan an envelope his father had hidden months earlier.
Inside was a certified copy of company ownership documents.
Dylan read them twice.
Then a third time.
His father had secretly transferred controlling voting rights to him years ago.
Not Eric.
Not Veronica.
Him.
The transfer had been prepared in case something happened.
It was fully legal.
Fully enforceable.
And completely unknown to Veronica.
Dylan finally understood why his father had remained calm whenever Veronica manipulated company affairs.
The old man had prepared a safeguard.
A safeguard named Dylan.
Meanwhile, the arrogance inside the mansion reached absurd levels.
Veronica began planning her son's coronation ceremony.
Hundreds of guests.
Business leaders.
Local officials.
Investors.
Media.
She wanted witnesses to her victory.
One evening she cornered Dylan in the kitchen.
“After Eric becomes CEO, you should leave.”
“Leave?”
“You embarrass this family.”
Dylan stared at her.
“You seem very confident.”
She laughed.
“I own everything.”
For the first time, Dylan smiled genuinely.
It was not a pleasant smile.
Something about it unsettled her.
“What?”
“Nothing,” Dylan replied.
May you like
But later that night, Veronica couldn't sleep.
Because for the first time in years, she wondered whether the man she had spent years humiliating was actually afraid of her at all.
