Too Late to Hold Me Back novel Chapter 573

Mira gave Owen a skeptical look. "You don't have to do that. Going alone is fine. Bringing a guest will just stress her out trying to play the host."

"I'm not exactly a stranger. She doesn't need to roll out the red carpet for me. I'll be low maintenance."

As Mira debated whether to let him come, Owen added, "I'll just say hello and leave. It won't take long."

"Aren't you swamped with work?"

"The meeting ended early. We haven't properly caught up in a while. Think of it as me keeping you company."

"Alright, get in," Mira relented.

Standing nearby, Jax and Silas exchanged a knowing look. "He just chased off Harvey Rivers so he could take his spot," Silas muttered under his breath.

"In Melvion, you never seemed this eager to keep me company," Mira remarked from the passenger seat as they drove.

"You were younger then," Owen replied smoothly.

"What does age have to do with keeping someone company?"

"Everything. Now that you're older, we actually have things to talk about."

Mira simply decided that Owen's logic operated on a completely different frequency than the rest of humanity.

When they pulled up to the Quinn estate, Eleanor was already waiting at the grand entrance, her eyes fixed on the driveway.

Spotting the approaching car, she grabbed her son and granddaughter's arms. "Hurry, help me over there."

"Mom, you're the matriarch. You shouldn't be rushing out to greet the younger generation like this. Why didn't you just wait in the drawing room?" Sebastian Quinn sighed.

"Zip it and help me walk. Unless you want me to embarrass you in front of the kids."

Sebastian instantly shut his mouth. He knew better; his mother was absolutely capable of making good on her threats.

"Glad you know it." Even in her old age, Eleanor maintained her iron-willed grip on the household, fiercely refusing to be seen as frail.

"Good afternoon, Grandma Eleanor. Good afternoon, Mr. Quinn." Owen stepped up beside Mira.

The family finally shifted their attention to him.

Between the arrival and the imposing bodyguards trailing Mira, they hadn't initially realized the tall man was Owen Lance, assuming he was part of the security detail.

"Owen Lance? What are you doing here?" Sebastian asked, thoroughly shocked.

Owen's reputation in Aethelgard rivaled Mira's fame in Melvion City. As the former golden boy of the Lance family, his business acumen had once dominated the capital's corporate landscape. It was only after a vicious, coordinated betrayal by rivals and his father's mistress—Lawrence Lance's mother—that he was ousted from the family empire.

While it was never publicly confirmed, every sharp mind in the city suspected Owen secretly controlled a massive shadow network of businesses.

Furthermore, anyone who had crossed him in the past had inevitably met a miserable end.