Chapter 22

When Oliver awoke from his fitful sleep, he said nothing. A hollow emptiness gnawed at his chest, as if someone had carved out a piece of his soul and left a gaping hole behind. He had lost Cynthia completely. Zayne would never give him another chance to get close to her again. … The plane touched down quickly. The moment he turned his phone back on, it lit up with messages and missed calls—dozens of them. "Mr. Carter, we're from the Federal Tax Bureau. Please come with us." Oliver's expression darkened. He'd known his family situation back home was dire, but he hadn't realized just how far things had unraveled. He was bankrupt. By the time he walked out of the tax office, he was in a daze. The empire he had spent more than a decade building was gone. It collapsed in less than a month. And there was one name burning like acid on his tongue—Melissa. Never in his life had he hated someone so much. He could almost understand betrayal—people made selfish choices, so they l