The Man Who Never Looked Away novel Chapter 292

Lavinia stood beside him, tilting her head to look at him.

He turned his face, their eyes meeting.

She smiled, and the corners of his lips curved up in response.

They stood together, applauding with the crowd, sharing a quiet, knowing smile.

Garnett stood on the outskirts of the crowd, watching them. Something shattered in his chest, an unrecognizable, bitter feeling welling up inside him.

He turned, grabbed Sigrid by the wrist, and pulled her away from the spotlight.

He dragged her down the hall to an empty VIP lounge beside the exhibition floor and slammed the door shut.

Releasing her, Garnett spun around, his face like a thundercloud.

"Open the bag."

Sigrid looked at him, her lips parting slightly, but no sound came out.

After a long, agonizing moment under his piercing glare, she slowly unzipped the clutch.

Inside, the bangle rested in the shadows.

It was as green as a bottomless pool of water.

An exact replica of the one Charley had just placed in the display case.

Garnett stared at the jade in the bag. Deep, luminescent green. Identical. He looked at it for a long time before raising his head to look at Sigrid's face.

There was no rage in his eyes. No blame. Just sheer disbelief, an absolute inability to comprehend.

And a trace of pity.

"Sigrid, why would you do this?" Garnett asked.

Sigrid forced a calm tone. "Garnett, I swear, I had no idea. I must have just grabbed the wrong one by accident."

"That bangle was locked inside my vault," Garnett cut her off. "How did you even get to it?"

Sigrid lowered her eyes. "It was Corinne. She said the bangle looked perfect on me, and insisted I borrow it for a few days. Garnett, I really was just borrowing it. I didn't mean anything by it."

Stepping outside the hotel, the cool night air hit him. Garnett loosened his tie.

Standing on the edge of the light and the dark, he lit a cigarette. The smoke dissolved into the night as he stared at the passing headlights, his mind completely numb.

His phone rang. It was Corinne.

He answered it, frustration burning up his throat like a sudden flame. He was ready to tear into her, but the voice on the other end was frantic.

"Mr. Harper, it's a disaster. Sigrid swapping the bangle is trending online, and your name is attached to it. People are saying... saying you're cheating on your wife. Pictures of you two going into a hotel have been leaked. The group's stock is crashing in pre-market trading."

Garnett's cigarette paused mid-air. He froze for a second, forcing himself to stay calm. He kept his voice steady. "They moved too fast. Someone is behind this."

"It has to be," Corinne said, her voice tight with panic. "And there's something else. Someone is executing a hostile takeover of our circulating shares on the secondary market. Their stake has already surpassed fifteen percent."

Garnett's grip tightened crushingly around his phone. Fifteen percent of the circulating shares? The amount of capital required for that was astronomical.

He had recently diluted his father Nestor's voting power by increasing the ratio of circulating shares—a brilliant move at the time, but now it had left the gates wide open for corporate raiders.

His chest heaved. He viciously crushed the cigarette out and said coldly, "I'm heading back right now."