Too Late, Mr. Billionaire: You Can't Afford Me by Thedora Birnir

Chapter 179 Don’t Take Hadley’s Things

The buzz–cut man wheezed, gasping through the pain, his body trembling from the brutal beating.

“Don’t let her fool you–that woman is a menace! Even after I had her cornered, she smashed through the car window with a kick! She grabbed a glass shard–stabbed me with it!”

To prove his words, he yanked up his sleeve, revealing a mess of jagged cuts and dried blood.

“Look! She did this! All of it!”

Tears streaked his face, his bravado shattered.

“Shut up!” Eric snapped. “Stop your pathetic whining–I asked you where she is!”

“I–I don’t know…”

Still nothing.

Eric’s grip tightened, his rage swelling like a storm. Exhaling sharply, his gaze dropped to Linda, still clinging desperately to his waist. “Linda.” He locked eyes with her, his tone dangerously steady. “Move. I’m going to kill him!”

The bastard wouldn’t talk until he was staring death in the face.

“No!” Her pulse pounded, but she didn’t waver. “I think… he really doesn’t know!”

“I swear! I really don’t know!” The man sobbed, his breath ragged. “She stabbed me and then bolted out of the car! I… I tried, but I couldn’t catch up!”

“Eric!”

Linda’s voice cut through the tension, her grip tightening around him as she looked up at his face. “I think he’s telling the truth. At this point, lying wouldn’t help him.”

Eric understood, but his chest felt heavy. Where the hell could Hadley have gone?

If she had fought back with a glass shard, was she hurt, too?

His eyes snapped open. “Where?”

The man blinked through his swollen face, confused. “W–What? What do you mean–where?”

‘Unless you want to die, tell me where she ran off to?”

“Eric!” Linda tightened her grip, pulling him back just as his body tensed.

“I know! I know!”

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< Chapter 179 Don’t Take Hadley’s Things

The man nearly choked on his words, his entire body trembling with fear.

Road!” he blurted out, his voice cracking. “She got off

wildly, panic flooding his expression. “I swear! I don’t know anything else! She ran, and that’s

Rayton Road.

brows slightly furrowed. After a moment,

he regarded the shaking man on

was calm–but chilling.

is a lie–I won’t take your life, but here, in Srixby, I have ways to make every single day a living

button on his wheelchair and turned

“Quentin.”

immediately stepped forward, his movements crisp, professional.

Rayton Road.

eerily quiet–an isolated stretch with

Hadley had gotten off here, there was no telling where could

entire night combing the area, leading searches in every possible direction.

Eventually, dawn broke…

hadn’t closed his eyes

was impossible. After all, Hadley had been missing for

coat,

family, no

now?,

was he still here, unharmed? Why wasn’t he

stood at the foot of the stairs, arms crossed, her face drawn with anxiety. “Where could she have gone?”

was grim. They had scoured every inch of Rayton Road. Still–nothing. No check–ins at

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Don’t Take

airports–not even a whisper in accident reports.

if

attempting to soften the

Eric–breakfast is ready.

her voice heavy, her arms tightening around herself.

know you’re worried. We all are. But you

gaze shifted to Ernest, her tone turning more insistent.

hesitated, but then gave a short

Eric, who stood motionless, staring blankly at the floor. “You should eat too.”

voice was rough, barely above a whisper. “Grandma, Ernest–you should eat, but I can’t.”

Linda started, but

the room, calm yet absolute. “He’s

Hadley, was he? He was taking her side.

Upstairs.

feet carried him toward Hadley’s. He walked in, barely registering his movements, and collapsed onto her bed fully clothed, his body heavy with

inhaled deeply–clinging to the faint

are you,

all night. But even here, lying in the warmth of her space, rest wouldn’t come. Closing his eyes only made the unease worse.

point, a knock sounded at the

Phillips.