Outcast Queen: Her Return from Hell novel Chapter 411

The Cloudhaven Business Summit, hosted by Draco Enterprises, hit Silas Sterling and Mavis Miller like a sledgehammer, shattering their delusions of grandeur.

Having lost their only lifeline, they were left waiting for the inevitable, destined to be discarded like useless pawns.

Inside the presidential suite, the silence was deafening.

Barrett Lowery stood with his hands behind his back by the floor-to-ceiling windows, looking down at the Cloudhaven skyline.

Though he didn't say a word, the suffocating aura of pure malice radiating from him made it hard to breathe.

Silas slumped on the sofa, sweating profusely, his dress shirt completely soaked through.

Mavis sat nearby, her face pale and her eyes empty, having clearly given up on any sort of struggle.

"Silas, I gave you thirty billion dollars," Barrett finally shattered the silence, his voice dripping with ice. "Thirty billion. I thought you could swallow the Sterling Group whole and become the sharpest blade in my arsenal."

He suddenly turned, glaring down at Silas with the disdain of someone looking at an insect. "But in the end, you're nothing but a monumental joke! Pierce Sterling hollowed out the company right under your nose, and you didn't suspect a damn thing?"

"Barrett, I... I really had no idea!" Silas's lips trembled as a pathetic, desperate smile stretched across his face. "He left so decisively back then. I thought the old man broke his heart and he was completely done with the family. Who could have known it was all a smokescreen to blindside me!"

Barrett strode forward, grabbed Silas by the collar, and hauled him halfway off the couch. "I don't care if you're actually this stupid or just playing dumb," he snarled. "You are going to spit out every last cent of that thirty billion. Otherwise, I'll show you what it really means to lose everything."

"Barrett, please... where am I supposed to find thirty billion dollars at a time like this?" Silas's voice cracked with a sob. "Every major bank has blacklisted me. None of the other players had faith in the Sterling Group to begin with, and after the humiliation I suffered at the Summit today, they'll avoid me like the plague!"

"That sounds like a personal problem. I expect to see all thirty billion back in my account, untouched." Barrett raised his hand and patronizingly patted Silas's rigid cheek.

Then, he snapped his head toward Mavis, his venomous gaze locking onto her. "And you!"

"I gave you the authority to represent The Osborne Family, expecting you to take a bite out of the competition. And look at you now! You didn't just embarrass yourself; you dragged the Osborne name through the mud!"

When he learned that the untouchable Draco Enterprises was single-handedly founded by Pierce, the venom of regret mercilessly gnawed at his insides.

"Heh... karma. This is all karma! I made the same idiotic mistake as that old fool Alistair!" Muddy tears slipped from his eyes as his skeletal fingers gripped the bedsheets. "Pierce is a titan! And I... I tore him down and drove him out of his own home, just to protect a useless failure!"

Before he could finish, a violent, agonizing cough ripped through his chest.

His already pallid face turned a dangerous shade of purple. It was as if the last spark of life was being drained from him, leaving him like a candle in the wind, ready to extinguish at any second.

"Please, you must take care of yourself, sir!" The elderly butler rushed forward with red eyes, gently rubbing the patriarch's chest to help him breathe. "You are the pillar of the Sterling family! If you collapse now while we're weathering this storm, the family will truly be finished!"

Arthur waved him off weakly, his eyes filled with a bitter, profound despair. "I could have spent my final years surrounded by a brilliant grandson and a wonderful granddaughter-in-law. I was utterly blind, insisting on propping up Silas, that piece of trash... God, I regret it!"

He looked up, tears streaming down his weathered face. "If I could do it all over again, I would never push Pierce away. I should have handed him all the Sterling shares without hesitation! Only in his hands could this sinking ship have been saved..."