THE DISABLED HEIRESS, MY EX-HUSBAND WOULD PAY DEARLY.

Then he Continued.

"We became friends. Very close friends. Everything about her was… magnetic. Cora had this aura, like she knew where she was going in life. Confident. Sharp. The type of woman who always had the answer even before the question was asked."

Then William nodded once, gesturing silently for him to go on.

"So," James said, eyes now fixed on the floor, "we started dating. It felt natural. We were always around each other anyway. Eventually, we got married. I thought we were going to conquer the world together."

"But you didn't," William cut in, his voice ice-cold.

At that moment James sighed, looking worn. "No. We didn't. At first, we worked together, we even built a business. A very good one. But then…"

His jaw tightened. "Cora… she's bossy. Extremely. She always wants her words to stand. She doesn't listen to advice, not really. She thinks she's always right, and honestly, sometimes… she is. But that doesn't make it easier, but again i grow more than her, and we didn't fit each other anymore."

His voice cracked with frustration. "She's finer than most. Smarter than most. She's always one step ahead, and that's the problem. That's why it wouldn't work. She couldn't let go of control, and I couldn't let go of trying to prove I wasn't beneath her but above."

He shook his head slowly. "She tried to destroy me, William. Multiple times. Not just emotionally, but financially. Publicly. Silently. Behind closed doors and in broad daylight. She's not the type you can just walk away from and expect to stay clean, and for the fact she was on a wheelchair, and still want everything made me even mad."

He looked up at William now, his face pale, but his voice firm with bitterness. "That's why I'm fighting back. I'm not trying to win anymore. I'm just trying to survive. To make sure she doesn't finish what she started."

At that moment, upon hearing what James just said, William couldn't help himself. He just stood there… smiling. But this wasn't the kind of smile that brought peace. It was the kind of smile that carried weight the kind that made the room colder, that made the air thinner. A twisted confirmation was settling into William's mind like a slow-moving poison: James truly didn't know who Cora was.

He had suspected it earlier, but now, he was completely sure.

How could James talk so casually? So naively? How could he describe Cora as just a "bossy woman" who tried to destroy him out of pride? If James had even the smallest clue of who she truly was of her reach, her power, her hidden connections, the vast empire silently wrapped around her name he would never have tried to fight back. No, he would have run. Far. And fast. He wouldn't have even dared to speak Cora's name.

This wasn't just a dangerous woman. Cora was a storm dressed in silk, a thunderclap behind a pair of quiet eyes. And for James to think he could "fight back" meant he was either stupid, or suicidally blind. William now saw James as the latter, a man completely unaware of the game he was playing, and the beast he had dared to provoke.

Then William leaned against the damp table beside him, slowly crossing his arms. His expression was calm, but inside, his mind was racing. If James didn't even know who Cora truly was, then he clearly didn't know what she could do which made him unpredictable. Dangerous not because of his strength, but because of his ignorance.

But William wasn't going to say any of that. No. He had already made up his mind this wasn't his fight, and it wasn't his problem. If James wanted to march into the lion's den wearing a shirt that said "bite me," then so be it. William wasn't going to save him.

In fact, he had already made a quiet decision in his head: he was going to pull away from this entire mess. No more deals. No more attachments. Whatever Cora was planning he wanted no part of it. He just wanted to make sure James didn't drag him down when the flames started rising.

Then William straightened up, his eyes darkening.

"I'm going to give you one more chance," he said coldly, his voice like steel. "You mess this up, I catch you again you won't be leaving. If you even think about running, I will find you, James."

He stepped forward, just close enough for James to see the seriousness in his eyes.

"And when I do… I'm going to cut off your leg. You'll never walk again. You'll never run again. And after that… I'll destroy everything you ever touched. Everything you ever built. That's what I'll do to you, James."

At that moment, as William watched James slumped in the chair, water dripping from every corner of his soaked shirt, a bitter smirk crept across his face. He still couldn't fathom how a woman like Cora, intelligent, elegant, powerful could have ever fallen for a man like James. To William, James looked every inch the coward he had always suspected him to be: desperate, pathetic, trembling with fear.

And yet, she had loved him once. Maybe even still did.

That thought alone made William's blood boil, he had done everything, played his cards right, stayed close, respectful, measured his steps. He never dared to overstep, knowing fully well that Cora wasn't the kind of woman who forgave carelessness. She was not just a business partner. She was a queen in her own right, and William had made it his mission to prove himself worthy of her attention, of her admiration, of her heart.

But the more he tried, the more distant she became.

And now, to hear that she once gave herself to this mess of a man sitting before him? It was a stab to his ego.

So that's the kind of man she falls for? William scoffed in his mind. If Cora could once choose this fool, then maybe she wasn't that impossible after all. Maybe she was just playing hard to get because she saw through him.

Still, he had to tread carefully. The business partnership with Cora was too valuable, too strategic. If she even caught a whiff of his true intentions or how low his respect for James was, she could pull the plug, and their shared ventures would dissolve in an instant. That wouldn't just be a blow to his pride it would be a death sentence for his ambitions.

So William buried the storm inside him. He masked it with calm authority.

But in his heart, he had already made a decision.

He was going to go after Cora. Not just with charm. With purpose. He would tighten the net slowly. He believed she was just playing the classic game of the untouchable woman, and he was going to break that facade. He was going to reach her.

One way or another, with that thought fueling his confidence, William turned sharply to his men. "Let him go," he commanded coldly, gesturing toward the wet and broken James.

The ropes were loosened. James collapsed forward slightly, coughing, his eyes red and wide, unsure what was going on.

But William wasn't finished, he bent down slightly, his voice low and venomous, letting his words burn slowly into James' ears.

"Listen carefully, James," he said. "You've got two days. Just two. If I don't have what I asked for by then, I will come back for you. And next time, you won't walk away."