CHAPTER 59

Charles POV:

The sight of Nathan Richards slumped on the hospital floor, his shoulders shaking, his face buried in his hands, should have filled me with satisfaction.

This was what I’d been working towards, wasn’t it?

To break him, to strip him of everything – his company, his family, his pride.

To expose him as the weak, selfish fool he truly was.

But as I stood there, watching him crumble, a strange, unexpected emotion flickered within me.

It wasn’t pity, not exactly. It was more like… a hollow ache, a recognition of a shared humanity I’d long forgotten.

The hallway was empty, the usual bustle of nurses and visitors absent in this quiet corner, the only sound Nathan's ragged breaths and the faint hum of the vending machine down the hall.

I walked towards him, my footsteps echoing on the floor. He didn't look up, his body curled in on itself, a picture of defeat.

I remembered a different Nathan, the arrogant, cocky kid who'd ruled the hallways of our prep school, the charismatic