---- Chapter 20 The video of Liam's confession and his assault on Clara went viral. It was everywhere. It was also seen by his grandfather, George Kane. The old man, the formidable patriarch of the Kane family, was livid. He summoned Liam to the family estate, a sprawling mansion outside the city. Liam arrived to find his grandfather waiting for him in the library, his face like stone. "Have you lost your mind?" George roared, slamming his fist on his antique desk. "Airing our family's dirty laundry for the entire world to see? Assaulting a woman on a live broadcast? You have brought shame upon the Kane name!" "| did what | had to do," Liam said, his voice flat. He was exhausted, emotionally drained. He had just come from the hospital. He had stood outside Clara's room, listening to her occasional cries, feeling nothing but a cold, distant disgust. He had instructed the doctors to give her the best possible care, and then he had walked away. "I did it to get Ava back," Liam explained to his grandfather. "It was the only way." ---- George stared at him, his initial fury giving way to a look of disbelief. "You think this... this public spectacle is going to bring her back? You humiliated her, you cheated on her with her biggest rival, you let that woman carry your child, and you think a dramatic apology on the internet is going to fix it? You are a bigger fool than | thought." The old man's words were sharp, and they hit their mark. Doubt began to creep into Liam's mind. What if his grand gesture had been for nothing? What if | had seen it and just... laughed? "| had to try," Liam said, his voice barely a whisper. "I'll do anything to get her back. Anything." "Anything?" George asked, his voice softening slightly. "You hurt that girl, Liam. You hurt her deeply. Ava... she was a good girl. The best. She was supposed to be the future of this family." "| know," Liam said, his throat tight. "| know what | lost." He looked at his grandfather, his eyes wild with a desperate, obsessive light. "| would give up everything to have her back. The company, the inheritance... my life. | would die for her, Grandpa." George Kane looked at his grandson, at the broken, desperate man he had become. The boy who had always been so cool, so controlled, was now consumed by this frantic, all- encompassing obsession. He had gotten everything he thought he wanted-the power, ---- the freedom to be with Clara-and in doing so, he had lost the one thing that truly mattered. The old man sighed, a deep, weary sound. He was no longer angry. He was just sad. Sad for me, sad for his grandson, and sad for the legacy he had worked so hard to build, which was now crumbling into dust.