The Officer's Runaway Wife & Secret Son novel Chapter 553

Inside the office building, Simon and Alex were leading a few new hires in testing the equipment for their inaugural livestream scheduled for the next day.

Clara manned the monitors, directing the lighting crew.

It was the fourth official day of operations for Star-Walker Media.

Camera rigs lined the room, the protective plastic films not even fully peeled off the lenses yet.

Simon had told her that once the cameras rolled for their first broadcast tomorrow, the office would truly come alive.

Everything was finally moving in the right direction.

Suddenly, with a deafening crash, the main doors were violently kicked open from the outside, sending shards of glass flying across the floor.

Five or six burly men stormed in, brandishing steel pipes and baseball bats, exuding pure menace.

These thugs were part of the shady outsourced construction crews that Eric had previously employed.

With Eric's sudden downfall, the massive payments owed for half a year of construction work vanished into thin air. The men at the top had either fled or been arrested. Left leaderless and enraged, they dug around for information and concluded that Rhys was the one who had stabbed Eric in the back.

They didn't have the guts to storm the Police Department, and the tight security at Riverside Court made it impossible to infiltrate. So, they set their sights on Clara's newly opened business.

It was just an office in a commercial building with minimal security; barging in was terrifyingly easy.

"Which one of you bitches is Clara? Tell that bastard Rhys to get his ass out here!"

The bald leader swung his bat, completely obliterating the computer monitor at the front desk.

The young female employees screamed in terror, huddling together in the corner.

Clara glanced over her shoulder.

Six men. Steel pipes and baseball bats. No knives.

They were here to smash the place up and vent their anger.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Simon's face turned ashen as he yanked Clara behind him, grabbing a heavy camera tripod to use as a shield. "Alex, call the cops!"

"Call the cops? Screw you!"

The bald thug couldn't care less.

They were here to cause absolute chaos, intent on tearing the place apart. Even if they got arrested, a few days in a holding cell was a price they were more than willing to pay.

The men spread out, destroying everything in sight.

Computers, expensive cameras, and files were violently swept to the floor.

The office was in utter ruins. Alex had already sprinted over to Simon, gripping his shoulders to keep him steady. "Don't move. Let me look at it."

Simon's face was drained of color from the agonizing pain, yet he still managed a weak grin. "Relax, stop looking like it's a funeral. Nothing's broken, I can tell."

Clara crouched down to inspect the injury, fighting to keep her composure. But when she stood up and walked to the window to make a call, her voice betrayed a violent tremor.

Police Department Command Center.

After Rhys took Clara's call, the temperature in the entire office seemingly plummeted below freezing.

Hanging up the phone, he strode directly to the main operations console.

"Pull up all the surveillance feeds for The Central Business District and the surrounding intersections. A group of armed thugs just assaulted Star-Walker Media. I want their escape route, right now."

A few minutes later, a flashing red dot appeared on the massive screen.

"Director Huntington, we have six targets in a single van. The vehicle was last seen disappearing into an abandoned underground garage near the unfinished high-rises on North Loop Road."

North Loop Road was notorious for having the absolute worst crime rate in all of Brighton City.

Surrounded by derelict construction sites, it was an absolute haven for violent fugitives.

Staring coldly at the blinking red dot, Rhys turned on his heel and marched out.