Too Late to Hold Me Back novel Chapter 506

"Call Ethan right now," Adrian gasped the moment he opened his eyes in the hospital bed. His first thought wasn't his health, but whether his company could be salvaged.

Fiona hesitated. "Adrian, he's not going to agree."

"I told you to call him, just do it! Stop nagging!"

Reluctantly, she picked up his phone and dialed Ethan's number. When it connected, she handed it over.

Surprisingly, Ethan picked up.

"Do you really want to watch the Mercer Group go bankrupt?"

"Isn't this what you brought upon yourself? Isn't this exactly the outcome you wanted?" Ethan replied coldly. "What, your buddy Shane Porter wouldn't even leave you a scrap? Now you suddenly realize your son is more reliable?"

Not long ago, Adrian had preferred handing the business over to outsiders for external support rather than letting his own son take charge. How quickly karma had arrived.

"Ethan, I'm hospitalized and severely ill. If you step in and turn this around, all the assets are yours. For the rest of my life, I just need a roof over my head and food on the table."

Adrian had offered his absolute bottom line, but Ethan wasn't buying it.

"And leave nothing for your beloved Fiona and Mara?"

"As long as they're with me, they just need enough to survive."

"Dad, is that really possible? Let's drop the act. Leave your remaining fortune to them. I'm not wading into this swamp. I have my billions; I don't need anything else."

She absolutely did not want Lacey's children gaining real power over the empire. She wouldn't get a dime if that happened.

"Mara? With her half-baked skills? She couldn't even hold the fort when times were peaceful and let Roxanne play her for a fool. Now that the group is on the brink of death, you think she can turn the tide?"

He had only used Mara previously because she was easy to manipulate.

"Out of all the kids, only Ethan and Mira have the brains for a crisis this complex."

A flash of jealousy crossed Fiona's eyes, but she knew that if the company died, she would be ruined too.

Letting them save it was fine—once the company resurrected and Adrian died, she and Mara would be the sole legal heirs.