Although Max had asked Chad a few questions here and there before, the truth was, the two of them had always been on completely different levels.
Back then, Chad had believed he was dealing with a useless Stern family mber. One who didn’t have his parents backing him. Soone weak. Easy to manipulate. He thought Max was just another na in the family tree, a powerless relative he could bend to his will.
The crazy part? Based on everything Chad had done so far, he genuinely believed he’d succeeded.
Which ant that whatever answers Max had gotten before, if any, they likely hadn’t been the truth. But now, that was about to change.
"I found out a lot about you, Chad," Max began, his voice calm but cold. "About how you lost all of the inheritance you gained. How you gambled it all away at those events the Black Hounds put on."
He leaned in slightly, eyes sharp.
"No wonder they treat you like so kind of VIP. You basically handed them your fortune."
Chad’s eyes twitched at the ntion of it, but Max wasn’t finished.
"I want to hear it from you," he said. "Is it true? Is that really how you lost your money? And is that the reason you hired Dipter, to try and control ?"
There was a brief pause. Too long of a pause.
Before Chad could decide whether or not to respond, Sandra stepped forward and, without hesitation, kicked the back of his knees. The force made Chad buckle, crashing to the ground with both knees slamming against the floor.
A small grunt escaped his mouth, but he didn’t protest. Not anymore.
Wolf, standing nearby, observed it all. He’d already learned who Max really was. But this, this was the first ti Max had openly acknowledged his family ties in front of everyone.
It seed like he’d reached a point where he just didn’t care about hiding it anymore.
"You’re right," Chad finally said, his voice low, shaken. There was no use denying it. The situation had flipped entirely.
He was no longer the older sibling lording over the Stern manor, looking down on the younger generation. Not anymore.
Now, he was on his knees, staring up at Max, the sa Max who now held all the power. Power that could rival even part of the Black Hounds.
"I lost all of my money," Chad admitted, a bitter laugh escaping his lips. "I thought... I thought I’d get a chance to win it back. But that chance never ca."
He took a breath, his hands clenched into fists against the floor.
"The harder the losses hit, the harder I partied. I didn’t want to think about it. I surrounded myself with people who only wanted one thing, money. And I gave it to them. Everything they wanted. Cars. Hotels. Fancy vacations. Private jets flying all over the world."
He paused, shaking his head.
"But I always ca back to the Black Hound events. Always. I kept telling myself, if I could just win big, win once, I could enjoy life again. I could keep going."
His voice cracked slightly.
"But when the money disappeared... everyone else disappeared with it."
There was a heavy pause after Chad’s confession. His words hung in the air like a bad stench, and for a mont, no one moved.
Everyone else in the room understood the truth, even if Chad himself didn’t want to see it.
The people he had surrounded himself with? They weren’t friends. They were never friends. They were just leeches, feeding off his wealth, laughing at his jokes because of the drinks he bought, staying close because of the cars, the hotels, the trips. And the second he couldn’t treat them like royalty anymore, they were gone, vanished like smoke.
"I was alone," Chad said, his voice trembling. "Without the money, no one wanted to be with . So what else could I do, Max? What else could I do?"
He looked up, desperate, his eyes burning with sothing between rage and regret.
"Well, I needed money for myself, right? I don’t know if you rember, but at the ti, I asked you, begged you, to lend a hundred million. I was going to use that to make a few bets, win big, and build myself back up. But you denied , Max. You! When you had all of it to yourself!"
His words ca out like accusations, each syllable sharp and venomous.
"So with the little money I had left, I hired a private investigator. He dug into you. He found out about your little online friend, Abby. And I did what I could, used everything I could, to corner you.
"At first, it was punishnt. Punishnt for denying such a simple request, for being selfish when you had everything. But then..." Chad’s voice softened, a twisted smile pulling at his lips. "Then I thought... maybe I could be your light.
"If your life kept sinking deeper into the pits, if everything kept falling apart, and I was the one to offer you a hand, the one to pull you out of that hole, then you’d have no choice but to accept it. And when you did, your money would be mine.
"So yes," he said, with an ugly pride, "I did it for your money, Max. But we both know it would’ve been better in my hands than yours!"
Max stood without a word, the silence more dangerous than anything Chad had just said. In one swift motion, he grabbed a fistful of Chad’s hair and yanked his head up, forcing him to look him dead in the eyes.
Max’s other hand pulled back, fist clenched tight, and then,
Crack!
The punch landed hard against Chad’s face, snapping his head sideways. His skull even bounced against the floor with a dull thud, but sohow, he stayed conscious, groaning in pain, his lip bleeding.
Max’s voice thundered, shaking the room.
"I don’t care what happened to you, but because of your actions, you dragged everyone else down with you! Your selfishness didn’t just ruin your life, it ruined lives you don’t even know about. Sam died because of you, Chad! Sam!And I bet you don’t even know who the hell that is!"
Max’s glare was furious, almost feral.
"Chad, everyone around you left because all you ever were, all you ever cared about, was money. From the second I t you, that’s all you were. When you lost it, you lost everything.
"If you went on the news tomorrow and told your sob story, no one would pity you. Not one person! You didn’t live a hard life, you were handed everything on a silver plate, and you threw it all off a cliff while dragging innocent people down with you."
Max tightened his grip on Chad’s hair, his words like fire.
"I’m not letting you drag down with you. Not anymore. Now, " Max leaned closer, his voice razor-sharp. ", you’re going to tell straight. What do you know about drowning at Lake Cure?"
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