The Wife he threw Away (Claire and Lucian) novel Chapter 180

CHAPTER ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTY LUCIAN’S POV

+25 Bonus

By the time I arrived at Dhark Holdings the next morning, the entire city already knew what had happened at the gala.

Once again, my name was glowing from financial headlines across giant screens in the lobby.

“DHARK PUBLICLY DECLARES LOVE FOR EX-WIFE.”

“INVESTORS CONCERNED OVER LUCIAN DHARK’S LEADERSHIP STABILITY.”

“KVEK PARTNER ASSAULTS DHARK CEO AT CHARITY GALA.”

I walked past all of it without slowing. Without even letting myself think of it.

Employees lowered their eyes immediately when I entered.

Some nodded respectfully, while pretended not to stare.

But I could feel it anyway.

The stared, whispers, the uncertainty.

The shift.

Humiliation still wasn’t something I knew how to wear.

The elevator ride to the executive floor felt endless.

By the time I entered the boardroom, everyone was already seated.

Waiting for me.

The atmosphere was grim-cold coffee, stacks of financial reports, tension thick enough to choke on.

No one said a word at first.

I sat at the head of the table anyway.

The meeting began immediately.

“Three more institutional investors paused negotiations this morning,” the CFO said carefully.

Another executive slid documents across the table.

“Our stocks dropped another six percent overnight following the gala incident.”

I almost laughed.

“The Gala incident” was an interesting way to describe public self-destruction.

The room remained painfully formal as reports continued.

1/6

SNOWIC AND EIGHTY (INIANS POV

+25 Bonus

Sponsor instability, shareholder panic. The international press coverage was worsening.

Then finally, a board member said what they had all been thinking-

“The market no longer trusts your judgment.”

Silence followed the statement instantly.

I looked toward the executive who’d said it.

He didn’t look away.

“With respect, Lucian,” another board member added carefully, “last night was not the behavior of a man separating business from personal affairs.”

Something dangerous rose in my chest.

But I was too tired for anger now, too exhausted.

So instead of responding emotionally, I simply asked,

“Are either of you suggesting I step down?”

No one answered immediately.

And that was answer enough.

The meeting dragged another hour after that.

They discussed numbers, damage control and crisis management.

But the truth sat beneath all of it now.

Dhark Holdings was bleeding badly. Fatally.

And for the first time in my life, the board was beginning to wonder if I was the wound.

–

When the meeting finally ended, executives filed out quietly.

They avoided eye contact.

They avoided me.

Only Chairman Whitmore remained behind.

Seventy years old and sharp-eyed, the chairman was of the few people left who had known my parents closely.

He waited until the room emptied completely before speaking.

“You look like your mother when you’re exhausted.”

2/6

The words hit unexpectedly hard, but I said nothing.

I’d said enough within the past several hours.

The chairman walked slowly toward the windows overlooking the city.

“Your family built this company through fear,” he said quietly. “But Elena built loyalty. Because she believed Dhark Holdings should protect people.”

My jaw tightened. Honestly, I didn’t want to hear any stories about my mother right now.

Not when I had just completely and utterly failed the people who relied on me.

“I know what she believed.” I simply said.

Whitmore turned toward me then. “You don’t have to die with this company, Lucian.”

There it was.

The real conversation.

Sell. Merge. Walk away before the empire collapsed completely.

For a second, I genuinely couldn’t breathe.

Because Dhark Holdings was more than just a multi-billion company.

It was my mother’s handwriting on old reports.

Her perfume lingering in executive hallways when I was a child.

Her voice teaching me how leadership should look, about how my father’s family had built such a

corporation.

Selling it would feel like losing her all over again. And losing everything the Dhark name stood for.

Whitmore’s voice softened slightly.

“Sometimes survival looks different than pride.”

Then he left me alone in the boardroom.

+25 Bonus

I was ten years old again.

Walking through Dhark Holdings beside my mother. She had just started being involved in the company again, after her chemotherapy was finally over- or so we thought.

Executives greeted Elena Dhark warmly.

She smiled at everyone: secretaries, assistants, security staff.

3/6

GNDRED AND PIGHTY LUCIAN SINAV

+25 Bonus

Everyone.

I remembered asking her once why she bothered learning the names of people most executives- including my father-ignored.

“Never mind your father and his snobbish ways,” she laughed.

Then she added gently, “An empire is only as good as the people protected beneath it.”

I hadn’t understood the weight of those words back then.

Now they haunted me.

Because somewhere along the line, I had failed to protect the people who mattered most.

Claire.

The company.

Myself.

–

I sat alone in my study after I returned home.

The giant silver DHARK logo reflected from my computer.

An empire built over generations.

And somehow, I might just be the man who destroyed it.

I leaned back slowly and closed my eyes.

Maybe my father had been right all along.

Maybe I really wasn’t enough.

The thought disgusted me instantly.

Because it sounded exactly like Leonard.

I heard the doors opened quietly, and Camilla stepped inside carrying a tray of coffee.

One look at me and her expression changed immediately.

“What happened?” She asked.

A frustrated breath escaped me. There was no point hiding it.

“The board wants me to sell.”

Camilla froze.

4/6

NOWED ANTYEIGHTY LUCIAN’S POV

For once, even she looked shaken. “What?”

I rubbed a tired hand across my face.

+25 Bonus

“They think the company can still be salvaged if someone else takes over before it collapses completely.”

Camilla stared at me for a long moment, then she slowly set the coffee down.

“You keep talking like losing the company is the end of you.”

I looked up.