Flash Marriage to a Stunning CEO (Alistair and Richard) novel Chapter 67

Chapter 67 A Life Traded Away

Liam’s face went pale.

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Getting the money was one thing. Being asked to cough it back. up? That was worse than a death sentence.

Celeste, always the bolder of the two, jumped in. “You’ve lost your mind,” she snapped. “You were a kid. Where would you get that kind of money at sixteen?”

Alistair looked at her coolly and said, every word clear and deliberate, “Where do you think it came from? You sold me.”

He let the word hang.

“Sold” wasn’t metaphorical. He meant it. Every day he’d spent working himself into the ground for Rebecca. That was the price.

And they’d taken it.

Across the gathering crowd, murmurs started rising.

“What do you mean, sold‘?”

“Did I hear that right? Two million? Alistair dropped out because of

that?”

Chapter 67 A Life Traded Away

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“Wait, wasn’t that around the same time they upgraded to a new

house and sent that Caleb kid abroad?”

“Oh hell,” someone muttered. “I remember wondering how Liam

suddenly came up with so much cash. Brand–new place, tuition

overseas… Don’t tell me he actually—”

“Sold his own kid,” someone else finished grimly.

Outside the wedding venue, the gossip was flowing freely.

The groom, quiet until now, suddenly spoke up, “So that’s why Alistair dropped out back then…”

People leaned in.

The groom had always had good social skills. He wasn’t great at school, but he knew everyone.

He even had a buddy who went to high school in New York- same year as Alistair.

At the time, he’d asked his friend to keep an eye on Alistair, bragging a little that they had gone to the same school.

That friend had confirmed it–Alistair was in the class next door. Top student. Sharp, quiet, impressive. Nothing like the spoiled rich kids who’d bought their way in like him.

Chapter 67 A Life Traded Away

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It had made the groom genuinely happy to hear Alistair was doing

well. They’d never been close, but Alistair had helped him through school by letting him copy homework more times than he could

count. He’d always hoped Alistair would go far.

But right before the SAT, the friend called and said Alistair had dropped out. His homeroom teacher had been livid.

Rumors flew. Later, the adults in town said Alistair gave it all up for

love.

Yeah, most people had done dumb things when they were young. Even someone like Alistair can get reckless.

Sometimes the straight–A kids burned out.

And sometimes the screw–ups turned it around.

Life was weird like that.

Maybe it was curiosity, or maybe it was the collective itch of an audience desperate to finish a half–spilled story, but the groom pulled out his phone right there and called that friend.

“Yo, remember that guy from school–Alistair Harlow? You still remember him?”

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Chapter 67 A Life Traded Away

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He put the call on speaker.

What came through the line stunned the whole crowd.

Someone whispered, “Top ten out of two thousand students? Are you serious?”

Alistair had been top ten in the entire grade before he dropped

out.

Back then, his disappearance had caused a stir. Some people had even assumed the worst–that he’d died.

No one just walked away from the SAT, especially not someone from a modest background with that kind of talent.