?Chapter 1397:


    With his jaw clenched and eyes zing, he stared up at the towering facade and muttered under his breath, “Dani, one day you’ll beg me to stay. On your knees.”


    Across the street, high behind tinted ss, Hamilton watched with an unreadable expression as Alexander seethed like a man unraveling. He murmured, “What a worthless fool.”


    Resorting to violence to control women was the mark of a man who had truly run out of worth.


    “Alexander might be beyond saving at this point,” his assistant observed.


    Hamilton said nothing, drawing deeply on his cigar and letting the smoke curl around his head like a storm cloud.


    “Niks is now living under Dani’s roof. He and Cedric bear a certain resemnce. Since you’ve already decided to pass your legacy to Cedric, why not give Niks a chance?” the assistant pressed.


    Hamilton’s brow furrowed. “We’ll give it time. I want to see if Niks can really win Dani’s heart.” Hope had not yetpletely left him.


    Niks, however, had already lost his spark. Most days he sank into a couch, scrolling through his phone without purpose, his eyes zed with disinterest. If food arrived, he ate. When work ended, he rode home in Carol’s car in silence.


    That routine was not living – it was unraveling.


    One dull afternoon, Niks apanied Carol to thepany and crossed paths with Hamilton. Head lowered and steps dragging, he walked into the building like a ghost – someone drowning in failure before even learning to swim.


    Hamilton did not miss a thing. The next time they met, he pped Niks hard across the face and berated him as a useless failure.


    It happened in broad daylight on a crowded street, and by nightfall the footage had gone viral. By morning, Niks’s name had be a joke. Across Oliscoll, people whispered that he’d been cast out of the McCoy family like trash no longer needed.


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    Carol tried twice to reach him, but nothing she said broke through his wall. He had already tuned the world out.


    Meanwhile, the newpanyunch consumed Dani and Cedric. Their days blurred together with meetings, spreadsheets, and backtoback social events.


    Niks, on the other hand, spent his days idling. His responsibilities were minimal—sometimes he’d deliver a document across the building; other times he’d reappear with coffee. One afternoon, Hamilton dropped by and found him wiping down Dani’s office desk.


    That sight sent Hamilton into a fury. He turned and left without a word. Despite the outburst, Niks didn’t react. That evening, headlines hit the press: McCoy Group had issued a formal statement stripping Niks of his board position. Alongside it came another bombshell: Hamilton publicly dered that Niks was no longer his son.


    For several minutes, Niks stared nkly at the announcement glowing on his screen.


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