Seventy eight

Dave's POV

I had been waiting for over an hour, sitting there, staring at the doors leading to the rooms, expecting Belle and Zane to finally step out. It wasn’t like them to hide this long, especially Zane.

But instead of the two people I was dying to confront, what I got was the Perri family, practically groveling before me.

Pathetic.

The Perri patriarch, Mr. Perri, stood in front of me with a forced smile, his hands clasped in front of him as though in prayer. His wife hovered behind him, wringing her hands nervously.

“Please, David,” her father began, his voice trembling. “We don’t want any trouble. Just… drop the lawsuit. We’ll leave quietly, I swear. We won’t cause any problems.”

I couldn’t help the smirk that stretched across my face. They were so desperate, so weak. This was the kind of power I craved, watching them squirm, knowing I held all the cards.

“You won’t cause any trouble?” I repeated, mocking his words as if they were a joke. “Oh, trust me, you wouldn’t be able