Chapter 6 - The Man Who Refused to LoseFor three days, Ryan Bennett disappeared from the public eye.
The media believed he was hiding because of shame.
The executives believed he was trying to recover from the humiliation.
The employees believed his career was finished.
But they were wrong.
Ryan Bennett had never been the kind of man who accepted defeat.
Not when he failed.
Not when he was rejected.
And certainly not when he lost everything he believed belonged to him.
He sat alone inside a luxury apartment he had purchased only six months earlier.
The same apartment he once told everyone was proof of his success.
The same apartment where he imagined bringing Madison after leaving me behind.
Now the silence inside those expensive walls felt unbearable.
The champagne bottles remained untouched.
The designer furniture looked meaningless.
The city lights outside the window no longer represented achievement.
They represented everything he had lost.
His position.
His reputation.
His future.
And me.
Ryan stared at the divorce papers sitting on the table.
He had read them hundreds of times.
But he still couldn't accept the words.
"Victoria Sterling requests dissolution of marriage."
Victoria Sterling.
Not Victoria Bennett.
Not the woman who needed him.
Not the woman who depended on him.
The woman who owned everything he wanted.
His phone suddenly rang.
He looked at the screen.
The name made his expression darken.
Madison Harper.
For a moment, he considered ignoring it.
But he answered.
"Hello?"
Her voice immediately sounded different.
Not warm.
Not affectionate.
Cold.
"Ryan."
He leaned back.
"Madison."
There was a long pause.
Then she spoke.
"I think we need to discuss what happened."
Ryan frowned.
"What happened?"
"You know exactly what I mean."
Her tone annoyed him.
"You said you would handle everything."
"I thought I would."
"But you didn't."
The words irritated him.
"Are you blaming me?"
Madison remained silent.
Then she said something that confirmed everything.
"My father is no longer interested in supporting you."
Ryan froze.
Because that was the only reason she had chosen him.
The Harper family connections.
The board relationships.
The influence.
Everything disappeared.
"Madison."
His voice became colder.
"Was that all I was to you?"
Another silence.
Then she answered.
"Ryan, don't make this emotional."
That sentence told him everything.
She never loved him.
She loved his potential.
And now there was nothing left to love.
The call ended.
Ryan slowly lowered the phone.
For the first time in years.
He felt completely alone.
But loneliness did not make him regret.
It made him angry.
He walked toward the mirror.
Looking at his own reflection.
"I built myself."
He whispered.
"I deserve everything."
That was the lie he kept repeating.
The lie that allowed him to sleep at night.
The lie that allowed him to betray the woman who saved him.
Then his expression changed.
Because he remembered something.
Something from seven years ago.
A conversation he thought was meaningless.
A conversation with my father.
Before my father died.
Ryan had met him once.
Only once.
He had no idea who he really was.
But my father had asked him a question.
"If one day you discovered Victoria wasn't ordinary..."
"What would you do?"
Ryan remembered laughing.
He remembered saying:
"I don't care about money."
"I love Victoria for who she is."
My father had smiled.
But now Ryan wondered.
Had my father known?
Had he tested him?
Had everyone known except him?
The realization burned.
Because maybe he had been given the greatest opportunity of his life.
And he destroyed it himself.
But instead of accepting that truth.
Ryan chose another path.
Revenge.
He grabbed his phone.
Opened his contacts.
And called the one person who hated the Sterling family more than anyone.
"Victor Black."
The man answered after three rings.
A deep voice came through.
"Ryan Bennett."
"I heard you lost everything."
Ryan's jaw tightened.
"I need your help."
A quiet laugh came from the other side.
"My help?"
"You used to work for Sterling Global."
"You were close to them."
"And now you want to destroy them?"
Ryan looked at the city.
"I want what was taken from me."
Victor laughed again.
"No, Ryan."
"You want revenge."
A pause.
Then Ryan answered.
"Yes."
The line became silent.
Finally, Victor spoke.
"Then you better be prepared."
"Because going against Victoria Sterling..."
"Is not like fighting an ordinary woman."
Ryan smiled.
"I know."
But he didn't.
Not yet.
Because he still didn't know the biggest secret.
He still didn't know that Victoria Sterling was not just the owner of the company.
She was also the person who had been secretly protecting him from his own mistakes for years.
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And when that protection disappeared...
The world would see the real Ryan Bennett.
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