Page 26 of Billionaire’s Heartbreak

For a second, I couldn’t move.

Laura.

The same woman who had fought me just yesterday. The same woman who had challenged my authority until Dannie stepped in. And now she was standing on a chair with a gun in her hand, defending me.

It felt like she wasn't just standing up for women. She was standing up for me. And somehow, that made it even more confusing.

Nothing in this world was simple.

The room exploded into chaos. Chairs scraped violently across the floor. Men reached beneath tables and into their jackets. Guns. Knives. Blades. Weapons appeared as if they had been waiting for permission.

“Calm down, everyone,” Hong said quickly, realizing they were outnumbered. “We’re not here to fight.”

“Sit down,” Dannie ordered.

People obeyed slowly, reluctantly, but the weapons remained on the tables—cold, visible, a promise that the argument wasn't over.

“So this is your decision?” Hong asked, his voice steady but heavy with warning. “Go legitimate. Put women in charge?”

“Yes,” Dannie said.

Still standing, he took my hand and helped me to my feet. My legs felt unsteady, but I stood anyway.

“This is Dr. June Bennet. My wife. The most intelligent, capable, impressive woman I’ve ever known.”

Frank sneered. “She looks like she belongs in my brothel.”

“Watch your mouth,” Kai snapped, his voice cutting through the air.

“Who the fuck do you think you are?” Frank shot back. “You may be important out there, but here? You’re nothing.”

“You might not remember, Uncle Frank,” Dannie said evenly, “but he’s the other boy who was taken that time.”

The color drained from Frank’s face. “You’re the other kid?”

“Why?” I asked, my heart pounding. “You had something to do with the kidnapping?”

I knew Dannie held more answers about that day, but I’d never pushed. It had left scars on both him and Kai.

“Don’t accuse me of that,” Frank snapped.

I remembered Auntie Five had been involved somehow—that the kidnapping had required cooperation between triads. The thought crawled over my skin. One of these elders could have played a role. But the real mastermind had never been exposed.

I glanced at Kai again.

He didn’t look right. The color had drained from his face, his jaw tight, his eyes fixed somewhere beyond the room as if he were seeing something that wasn’t here. His hand rested on the table, fingers curled too tightly around the edge, knuckles pale.

He wasn’t just tense. He looked like he was holding back a memory—one clawing its way up from somewhere he’d buried it.

“Can we all agree we respected my grandmother?” Dannie asked.

“Yes,” Hong said.

Others murmured the same. Heads nodded across the room.

“She never hesitated to step into triad matters,” Dannie continued. “No one refused her authority. So why is it suddenly a problem now?”

“She was never officially in charge,” Hong countered.